IRLF 


THE 


ROYAL  ROAD 


TAKING  HIA\ 
AT  HI  SWORD 


MARION  HARLAND 


THE   EOYAL   ROAD 


OR 


TAKING   HIM  AT  HIS  WOKD 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD 


TAKING    HIM    AT    HIS   WORD 


BY 

MARION   HARLAND 

AUTHOR  OF  "ALONE,"  "EVE'S  DAUGHTERS,"  "HIS  GREAT  SELF," 
"A  GALLANT  FIGHT,"  ETC. 


NEW    YORK 
ANSON  D.  F.  RANDOLPH  AND   COMPANY 

(INCORPORATED) 
182    FIFTH    AVENUE 


Copyright,  1894, 
BY  ANSON  D.  F.  RANDOLPH  AND  COMPANY 

(INCORPORATED) 


Hnttaersitg  Stress: 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.  S.  A. 


p  C  <?  ^  s-)  7 

«->  ^u ^  ' 

>*  * 


TO    MY    BROTHER, 


IN    RECOGNITION     OF     THE     STEADFAST     AFFECTION    THAT, 

IN   FIFTY    YEARS    OF    SUNSHINE    AND   OF    SHADOW, 

HAS    NEVER    FAILED    ME, 


is  ISooft  is  SLobmsIg 

MARION    HARLAND. 


M124831 


One  evening,  when  Luther  saw  a  little  bird  perched  on  a 
tree  to  roost  there  for  the  night,  he  said : 

"  This  little  bird  has  had  its  supper  and  now  it  is  getting 
ready  to  go  to  sleep  here,  quite  secure  and  content,  never 
troubling  itself  what  its  food  will  be,  or  where  its  lodging 
for  the  morrow.  Like  David,  it  abides  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Almighty.  It,  sits  on  its  little  twig  content,  and  lets 
God  take  care."  —  FROM  THE  GERMAN. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Hast  thou,  my  Master,  aught  for  me  to  do 

To  honor  thee  to-day  ? 
Hast  thou  a  word  of  love  to  some  poor  soul 

That  I  may  say  ? 
For  see !  this  world  that  thou  hast  made  so  fair 

Within  its  heart  is  sad, 
Thousands  are  lonely,  thousands  sigh  and  weep ; 

But  few  are  glad. 

ELIZABETH  PRENTISS. 


THE    ROYAL    ROAD. 


CHAPTER   I. 

MENDEBRAS  AVENUE  is  not  in  a  fashionable 
quarter  of  Brooklyn.  It  is,  however,  unques 
tionably  respectable.  Many  of  the  houses  are  of 
wood,  —  evidences  of  a  time,  not  many  years  back, 
when  the  district  was  one  of  numerous  villages  which 
have  been  overtaken  and  run  down  by  the  hurrying 
city.  Such  neighborhoods  have  a  bewildered  look 
and  a  general  air  of  being  ill  at  ease.  So  might 
stand  and  gape  a  group  of  country  children  sur 
prised  by  a  bevy  of  city  cousins,  and  invited  to  take 
part  in  their  games. 

The  region  about  Mendebras  Avenue  was  especially 
confounded  when  the  municipality  raced  up  to  it  and 
swallowed  it.  Against  its  will,  it  was  sliced  into  six 
blocks  one  way,  and  ten  the  other.  There  were  once 
gardens  there,  and  orchards,  and  commons,  where 
carpets  were  beaten  spring  and  fall,  and  the  boys 
played  ball  on  Saturdays.  Before  the  march  of  im 
provement,  brick  houses  in  twos  and  threes  and  fours 
were  wedged  into  the  gardens ;  streets  and  avenues 
(Brooklyn  is  affluent  in  avenues)  trampled  the  or 
chards  out  of  sight  and  memory  ;  each  vacant  lot 
was  filled  with  tall  rows  of  houses,  —  some  thinly 
faced  with  brown-stone,  others  of  pressed  brick  in 


jO  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

front,  cheap  brick  in  the  rear.  In  certain  streets, 
most  of  these  houses  had  several  door-bells  apiece. 
There  were  Nottingham  lace  curtains  at  the  front 
windows  ;  and  the  various  tints  of  the  Holland  shades 
testified  to  the  diverse  tastes  of  the  families  occupy 
ing  the  several  floors.  The  trees  lining  the  sidewalks 
were  generally  poplars,  a  good  deal  the  worse  for 
years  and  wear,  and  supercilious  young  maples. 

Trees  were  leafless,  and  the  vines  clinging  to  the 
porches  of  the  "  old  residents "  leafless  sticks,  one 
November  night  when  the  street-lamps  struggled  con 
scientiously  with  a  tawny  fog  that  would  bleach  into 
rain  as  soon  as  it  grew  a  little  heavier.  Right  in  the 
middle  of  a  block,  with  a  pair  of  new  brown-stone 
fronts  crowding  it  on  one  side,  and  a  time-blackened 
cottage  giving  it  elbow-room  on  the  other,  was  the 
Jeremy  Taylor  Memorial  Church.  It  belonged  to  the 
days  when  the  district  was  a  township,  and  had  once 
stood  in  the  centre  of  its  own  court.  Middle-aged 
people  could  recollect  the  fine  elms  that  shaded  the 
western  windows,  now  darkened  by  the  cataract  of 
the  dead  wall  of  the  brown-stone  front.  There  were 
then  tomb-stones  in  the  quadrangle  behind  it,  and 
the  bell  in  the  square  tower  rang  out  resonantly 
across  green  and  garden. 

It  had  rung  twice  on  this  evening,  at  seven  and 
again  at  eight  o'clock,  it  being  prayer-meeting  night. 

The  Jeremy  Taylor  people,  as  they  called  them 
selves, —  life  being  too  brief  in  a  fast-growing  city 
for  saying  three  words  when  two  would  do,  —  were 
regular  in  attendance  upon  church  ordinances.  They 
said  complacently  that  there  were  fewer  "  itching 


THE    ROYAL    ROAD.  11 

ears  "  among  them  than  in  the  majority  of  Brooklyn 
congregations.  A  goodly  number  of  them  were  from 
New  England,  and  "  calculated"  upon  going  to  church 
as  regularly  as  upon  crossing  the  Ferry  in  the  morn 
ing  and  coming  home  to  supper  at  night.  One  pastor 
had  folded  and  fed  them  for  twenty-five  years.  He 
was  "  getting  along "  now,  —  rising  fifty  years  of 
age,  —  but  they  craved  nothing  younger  and  livelier. 
They  knew  his  ways,  and  he  knew  theirs.  Blessed 
is  the  people  who  is  in  such  a  case,  and  thrice- 
blessed  the  pastor. 

The  chapel  was  behind  the  church,  an  oblong  room, 
plainly  furnished  with  cushionless  settees,  a  platform 
and  desk,  one  armchair  and  a  melodeon.  The  minis 
ter  was  of  medium  height,  spare  in  build,  and  wore 
eye-glasses.  His  coat  was  buttoned  across  a  nar 
row  chest;  and,  as  many  New  York  and  Brooklyn 
preachers  have  a  habit  of  doing,  he  cleared  his  throat 
of  the  catarrh-breeding  fog  frequently  while  speaking. 
Seventy-three  people  were  present,  —  a  gratifying  at 
tendance  for  a  wet  night. 

The  pastor's  wife  was  at  the  melodeon ;  in  the 
intervals  of  prayer  and  addresses,  a  gas-burner  back 
of  the  pulpit  hissed  and  blew  alternately  ;  the  sub 
siding  hum  of  the  city  was  like  the  far-off  roll  of 
sullen  surf.  The  air  of  the  chapel,  hot  with  furnace- 
breath,  was  yet  humid,  oppressing  lungs  and  spirits. 
In  a  distant  corner,  a  brother  had  succumbed  to  it, 
and  snored  intermittently,  but  under  his  breath,  as 
befitted  place  and  occasion. 

The  text  of  the  lecture  following  the  preliminary 
exercises  was :  — 


12  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

"  Before  faith  came,  we  were  kept  under  the  law, 
shut  up  into  the  faith  which  should  afterwards  be 
revealed" 

The  Rev.  William  C.  Barnes  constructed  his  dis 
courses,  major  and  minor,  upon  models  received  into 
a  good  and  honest  mind  more  than  thirty  years  ago 
in  Princeton  Seminary,  making  liberal  use  of  the 
stock  ecclesiastical  phrases  which  orthodox  Bible  stu 
dents  are  supposed  to  comprehend.  The  men  before 
him  to-night  belonged,  one  and  all,  to  the  mighty 
middle-class  of  the  community.  Every  man  of  them 
worked  for  a  living,  and,  without  exception,  worked 
hard.  Back  of  each  sedate  visage  were  experiences 
in  the  battle  of  every-day  life  that  would  have  aston 
ished  the  owner's  right  and  left  hand  neighbor,  had 
he  revealed  them.  Their  faces  were  criss-crossed  by 
lines  which  were  as  truly  scars  as  if  made  by  a 
branding-iron.  The  women's  faces  were  tired  and 
discontented,  or  tired  and  resigned.  Under  one  or 
the  other  of  these  types  may  be  classed  most  of  the 
countenances  of  native-born  United  States  women. 
Of  the  fifty  in  the  chapel  that  raw  November  night, 
perhaps  forty  "  did  their  own  work,"  and  probably 
thirty-nine  did  it  well.  These  are  the  true  yoke 
fellows  who  fill  the  settees  at  prayer-meetings,  and 
seldom  get  leisure  for  other  evening  engagements. 
These  are  likewise  they  who  do  not  drowse  during 
the  services,  even  when  the  lecture  is  upon  Justi 
fication  by  Faith,  The  Perseverance  of  the  Saints,  or 
Reprobation.  They  are,  as  a  body,  too  weary  to  do 
much  thinking,  and  familiar  platitudes  glide,  like 
bland  warm  oil,  over  rasped  nerves.  It  does  them 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  13 

good  always  to  go  to  church,  they  will  tell  you  with 
significance  imperfectly  comprehended  by  themselves. 
The  House  of  God  is  to  their  soul  the  gate  of  heaven, 
be  the  ministrations  of  His  earthly  servants  what 
they  may.  Gleams  of  light,  sweet  airs,  and  snatches 
of  celestial  melody  escape  to  them  through  gracious 
crevices  in  the  blessed  portals.  There  are  calming 
influences  in  the  voice  of  prayer,  and  refreshment  in 
the  dear  old  hymns. 

Dr.  Barnes  was  also  tired  to-night.  He  had  made 
six  pastoral  calls  in  the  afternoon,  and  in  the  morning 
gone  to  Cypress  Hills  Cemetery  behind  the  hearse  of 
an  utter  stranger  whose  first  cousin  had,  ten  years 
ago,  attended  "  the  Jeremy  Taylor "  when  she  went 
anywhere.  He  had,  according  to  his  custom  when 
he  had  an  evening  service,  eaten  no  supper,  spending 
the  hour  given  by  his  family  to  that  meal  in  his 
study,  "  thinking  up "  his  lecture.  When  tired,  he 
was  didactic.  Jaded  memory  did  not  go  afield  now 
for  apt  illustrations,  and  imagination  dozed  as  stupidly 
as  the  brother  in  the  distant  corner.  There  was  not 
the  rise  of  an  inch  to  the  mile  in  the  commonplaces 
of  his  comparison  of  the  "Old,  called  the  Mosaic 
Dispensation  "  with  the  "  New,  otherwise  the  Chris 
tian."  He  cited  passages  relative  to  the  Law  from 
the  New  Testament,  until  a  hearer  unversed  in  such 
matters  might  have  inferred  that  every  apostle  was 
a  member  of  the  legal  profession  ;  he  dwelt  upon  the 
impracticability  of  living  up  to  the  strict  letter  of 
the  Law,  "  rubbing  it  in,"  to  steal  a  slang  phrase,  as 
if  every  tried  and  tempted  parishioner  had  not  had 
the  terrible  truth  burned  into  his  soul  by  a  thousand 


14  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

failures ;  he  described  Faith  in  neat  formulas  learned 
from  professors  and  notebooks,  and  exhorted  the  im 
penitent  —  all  within  the  sound  of  his  voice  being 
church-members  in  good  and  regular  standing  —  to 
choose  the  better  part,  and  begin  the  study  and  prac 
tice  of  saving  Faith  before  the  judgment  of  the  Law 
overtook  them. 

The  Rev.  William  C.  Barnes  was  a  good  man, 
sincere  in  belief  and  faithful  in  teaching,  to  the  best 
of  his  ability.  But  he  had  conducted  a  prayer-meeting 
once  a  week  for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century ;  and 
human  nature  is  very  human,  mortal  flesh  very  weak 
when  weary. 

The  prayers,  of  which  there  were  four  beside  the 
pastor's,  were  in  the  same  key.  To  those  who 
"  offered  "  them,  these  services  were  likewise  an  oft- 
told  tale.  Had  they  ever  heard  the  anecdote,  each, 
had  he  dared  and  had  he  been  blest  with  a  sense  of 
humor,  would  have  plagiarized  the  man  who  was  so 
eloquent  in  public  prayer  that  an  admirer  listened 
at  his  chamber-door  one  night  in  the  hope  of  being 
edified  by  his  secret  devotions :  — 

"  Dear  Lord,"  sighed  the  disciple,  as  his  head 
sank  into  his  pillow,  "Thou  knowest  how  weary  I 
am  !  Thou  knowest,  also,  that  we  are  on  the  same 
old  terms!" 

"  There  still  remain  three  minutes  before  we  close 
these  exercises,"  said  the  leader's  patient  tones.  "  I 
hope  the  brethren  will  occupy  the  time." 

It  was  obviously  an  economic,  and  not  a  devotional, 
instinct  that  drew  the  fourth  brother  to  his  feet  to 
enunciate  a  prim  ascription  of  praise,  a  confession  of 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  15 

sins  many  and  heinous,  a  thanksgiving  for  mercies 
received,  and  a  supplication  for  a  continuance  of 
divine  favor.  Men  of  his  age  and  religious  training, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  adopt  the  formula  of 
devotion  prescribed  by  an  eminent  teacher  of  "  pas 
toral  theology,"  wherein  the  monosyllable  ACTS  is 
indicated  as  a  sacred  combination  for  the  lock  of 
the  divine  treasure-chamber. 

With  an  involuntary  sigh,  the  patient  pastor  arose 
to  announce  the  closing  hymn.  The  time  had  been 
honestly  occupied ;  but  in  nothing  that  had  been 
uttered  in  prayer  or  exhortation  had  anybody  fol 
lowed  his  lead.  They  had  danced  dutifully,  but  not 
to  the  tune  he  had  piped.  For  any  reference  that 
had  been  made  to  the  "  line  of  his  remarks,"  he 
might  as  well  have  preached,  like  the  old  English 
clergyman  of  The  Spectator,  from  "  Adam,  Seth, 
Enoch." 

A  sense  of  incongruity  between  the  words,  "  We 
will  conclude  our  services,"  and  the  perfunctory  char 
acter  of  the  exercises  from  beginning  to  end,  had 
something  to  do  with  the  sigh,  and  the  undertone 
of  pathos  in  which  he  read  one  stanza  of  the  hymn 
he  had  selected  :  — 

"  I  need  Thee  every  hour, 

Most  gracious  Lord ! 
No  other  voice  like  Thine 
Can  peace  afford." 

The  melodeon  stirred  and  spoke  feelingly  under 
the  skilful  touch  of  the  minister's  wife.  She  was 
the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  man,  had  cultivated  her 


16  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

musical  talent  in  former  days,  and  never  allowed  the 
accomplishment  to  lapse  into  desuetude.  The  som 
nolent  brother  in  the  dim  corner  also  stirred,  and, 
mightily  refreshed  by  his  sojourn  upon  the  Mount  of 
Privilege,  stood  with  the  rest,  with  the  over-acted 
aspect  of  wide-awakeativeness,  which  imposes  upon 
no  one  the  belief  that  Eutychus  has  found  edification 
behind  the  drawn  curtains  of  his  eyes.  Mrs.  Barnes 
raised  the  tune  with  voice  as  with  hand,  nearly  all 
of  the  little  congregation  singing  with  spirit,  if  not 
with  understanding. 

At  the  second  verse  a  new  voice  arose,  with  startling 
effect,  from  a  seat  near  the  door.  Dr.  Barnes,  sup 
plying  a  light  and  original  tenor  to  his  wife's  fine, 
true  soprano,  faltered  on  a  high  note  in  momentary 
surprise,  and  glanced  over  his  glasses  towards  the 
quarter  whence  the  sound  proceeded.  Several  other 
heads  were  turned  in  the  same  direction. 

A  woman  of  thirty-five  or  thereabouts,  dressed  in 
mourning  that,  without  being  new  or  fashionable,  did 
not  detract  from  the  impression  of  refinement  con 
veyed  by  her  face  and  carriage,  stood  there,  removed 
from  the  rest  of  the  audience  by  the  width  of  two 
empty  settees.  Her  hands,  clasped  loosely  upon  one 
another,  lay  upon  the  back  of  the  seat  before  her; 
her  face  was  upraised  slightly ;  her  eyes  were  wide, 
and  fixed  upon  a  point  above  the  pastor's  head.  It 
was  plain  that  she  was  removed  in  thought,  no  less 
than  in  body,  from  human  companionship.  Her  voice 
was  full  and  rich,  with  that  indescribable  vibrant 
quality  we  call  "  carrying  well ; "  but  it  was  the 
passionate  fervor  of  appeal,  the  cry  of  the  soul  in 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  17 

every   note,   that    went    to    the    listener's   ear    and 
heart : — 

"  I  need  Thee  every  hour  ! 

Stay  Thou  near  by  ; 
Temptations  lose  their  power 
When  Thou  art  nigh." 

It  rose  and  swelled  in  the  chorus  like  the  call  of 
grieving  earth  to  a  pitying  heaven :  - 

"  I  need  Thee,  oh,  I  need  Thee ! 

Every  hour  I  need  Thee  ! 
Oh,  bless  me  now,  my  Saviour ! 
I  come  to  Thee." 

With  the  thrilling  echo  still  calling  to  the  depths 
of  his  soul,  the  pastor  bowed  his  head  to  pronounce 
the  benediction.  When  he  raised  it,  the  back  seat 
was  empty. 

Two  of  the  deacons  were  waiting  for  him  in  the 
vestibule  when  he  came  out.  After  a  word  of  greet 
ing  he  inquired,  with  a  professional  interest,  if  either 
of  them  had  noticed  a  lady  dressed  in  black,  who  sat 
in  the  last  seat  of  the  chapel,  quite  close  to  the  door. 

u  She  has  a  remarkably  fine  voice,  as  I  observed  in 
the  singing  of  the  last  hymn.  But  my  attention  was 
first  drawn  to  her  by  her  manner  of  listening  to  the 
lecture.  I  do  not  think  she  lost  one  word  of  it,"  he 
subjoined,  with  the  frank  vanity  which,  although  not 
confined  to  men  of  his  calling,  is  seldom  so  outspoken 
in  other  professions.  "  She  has  an  intelligent  face, 
and  one  that  seemed  strangely  familiar  to  me.  I 
have  probably  seen  her  in  some  other  church  when 
I  have  exchanged  pulpits  with  some  of  my  New  York 

2 


18  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

or  Brooklyn  brethren.  Should  she  come  to  us  again, 
we  must  look  her  up.  We  cannot  be  too  attentive  to 
the  stranger  within  our  gates." 

Neither  of  the  deacons  had  noticed  the  stranger 
until  they  were  singing  the  last  hymn,  and  neither 
had  any  idea  who  she  was.  Both  agreed  with  Dr. 
Barnes  that  she  had  a  wonderful  voice,  and  one 
thought  she  "  sang  like  a  professional." 

When  they  turned  up  the  street,  and  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Barnes  down,  the  latter  had  something  to  say. 

"  I  saw  that  woman  when  she  came  into  the  chapel." 
Belonging  to  a  more  modern  and  less  formal  school 
than  her  husband,  she  said  "  woman  "  instead  of 
"  lady."  Being  one  of  the  laity,  she  had  no  flattering 
delusions  upon  another  point.  "  But  I  don't  agree 
with  you  in  thinking  that  she  listened  attentively  to 
the  lecture.  She  kept  her  eyes  on  you,  yet  it  looked 
to  me  more  like  the  polite  trick  of  a  well-bred  person, 
accustomed  to  appear  interested  in  a  speaker,  than 
real  hearing  and  thinking  of  what  one  hears.  She 
has  an  eager,  intense  face,  and,  unless  1  am  greatly 
mistaken  in  her  physiognomy,  she  is  intensely  mis 
erable.  I  never  saw  a  sadder  gaze.  Her  mourning 
is  not  new,  so  her  trouble  must  be  of  some  other 
kind.  I  don't  believe,  moreover,  that  she  is  in  the 
habit  of  attending  prayer-meetings  regularly.  She 
just  happened  into  ours,  in  passing.  She  did  not 
come  in  until  after  the  second  hymn,  and  dropped 
into  the  first  seat  she  came  to.  There  was  a  hunted 
look  about  her  that  struck  me  at  once,  and,  com 
bined  with  the  impression  that  I  had  seen  her  before, 
made  me  uneasy.  It  set  me  to  thinking  of  stories  I 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  19 

have  read  of  women  meditating  suicide  who  stole  into 
churches  on  the  way  to  the  river.  I  was  glad  that 
you  gave  out  that  last  hymn ;  and  her  way  of  singing 
it  confirmed  me  in  the  idea  that  it  was  just  the  word 
in  season  for  her." 

"  Upon  my  word,  Annie,  you  seem  to  have  made 
more  use  of  your  eyes  than  of  your  ears  during  ser 
vice."  Dr.  Barnes  had  an  excellent  disposition,  and 
was  loyally  fond  of  his  bright  helpmeet;  but  one 
or  two  things  in  this  speech  grated  upon  his  ear. 
"While  I  make  no  pretensions  to  being  an  enter 
taining  preacher,  it  is  within  the  range  of  possibility 
that  this  stranger,  who,  I  am  convinced,  has  heard 
me  somewhere  before,  may  have  followed  my  hum 
ble  remarks  with  more  attention  than  you  imagine 
probable." 

"  My  dear  William !  I  assure  you  —  " 

"  I  have  the  floor,  I  believe,  my  love  ! "  with  a  vexed 
little  laugh  and  a  show  of  extreme  politeness.  "I 
was  about  to  question  if  it  is  consistent  with  Chris 
tian  charity  of  thought  —  as  practised  by  men  at 
least  —  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  every  woman 
who  comes  late  to  prayer-meeting,  and  has  the  bad 
taste  to  listen  intently  to  what  is  said,  and  to  look 
solemn  after  a  searching,  practical  discourse,  must, 
of  necessity,  be  an  abandoned  creature  bent  upon 
self-murder." 

Sensible  Mrs.  Barnes,  a  clergyman's  wife  of  over 
a  score  of  years'  standing,  recalling  to  mind  that 
her  spouse  had  had  a  trying  day  and  was  still  fast 
ing,  quickened  her  pace  a  little,  and  glanced  up 
solicitously. 


20  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  Is  that  a  drop  of  rain  upon  my  nose  ? "  she  cried 
blithely.  "  You  were  sensible  in  not  wearing  your 
new  hat  to-night,  and  I  foolish  in  venturing  out  in 
one  which  I  cannot  afford  to  have  spoiled ;  but  I  do 
not  care  to  pay  too  dearly  for  the  lesson." 

A  favorite  supper  dish,  kept  warm  over  hot  water 
until  he  had  finished  the  day's  labors,  and  a  cup  of 
fresh  black  coffee  made  by  his  wife's  deft  hands  after 
they  got  home,  did  their  part  toward  restoring  the 
good  man  to  his  wonted  serenity,  and  banishing  the 
now  unwelcome  image  of  the  intelligent  stranger, 
who,  after  all,  might  have  simulated  rapt  attention 
to  a  plain  talk  prepared  for  the  more  spiritually- 
minded  of  his  own  flock,  who  would  compose  his 
audience  on  a  wet  night. 

The  more  imaginative  wife  did  not  dismiss  the 
subject  so  easily  from  her  silent  thoughts. 

"  That  woman's  face  haunts  me,"  she  soliloquized 
over  her  mending-basket,  when  her  husband  had  with 
drawn  to  his  study,  renewed  in  body  and  spirit.  "  I 
could  not  keep  my  eyes  from  wandering  to  her  while 
William  was  speaking.  And  the  voice  too,  I  could  be 
sure  went  with  it  in  my  mind.  Poor,  dear  William ! " 
here  she  smiled  in  affectionate  amusement,  "  it  was 
thoughtless  in  me  to  rub  his  fur  the  wrong  way  by 
my  inconsiderate  talk.  I  never  dreamed  of  inti 
mating  that  she  was  a  bad  woman.  There  was  not 
a  sign  of  that  sort  of  thing  about  her  except  the 
misery  in  a  face  I  seem  to  recollect  as  happy  and 
smiling/' 

Half  an  hour  afterward  she  tapped  at  her  husband's 
study  door.  Gentle  birth  and  breeding  had  made  her 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  21 

punctilious  in  the  practice  of  the  smallest  courtesies 
of  life. 

She  said,  "  I  beg  your  pardon,"  when  she  failed  to 
catch  the  hurried  or  mumbled  speech  of  a  servant, 
and  never  entered  the  door  of  a  member  of  her  family 
without  knocking.  She  was  a  comely  body,  with  per 
fect  teeth,  expressive  brown  eyes,  and  the  clear  bru 
nette  complexion  was,  like  Olivia's,  "  ingrain."  Just 
now  her  face  was  youthful  under  the  flush  and  flash 
of  excitement. 

"  William,  dear !  I  am  positive  that  I  know  that 
woman ! "  was  her  introductory  outburst,  as  the  open 
ing  door  revealed  the  reverend  student  bending  over 
his  desk. 

He  looked  up  with  labored  mildness. 

"  What  woman,  my  love  ?  " 

"  Excuse  me  !  What  a  blunderer  I  am !  The 
stranger  at  the  chapel  this  evening.  And  so  will 
you  when  I  remind  you  that  you  were  at  her  wed 
ding  eighteen  —  almost  nineteen  years  ago.  Don't 
you  recollect  Alice  Lanier,  who  married  that  hand 
some,  fascinating,  shiftless  Ernest  Paull  ?  She  and 
I  were  dear  friends  at  school,  and  until  we  were  both 
of  us  married.  I  declare  I  have  no  patience  with 
myself  for  not  recognizing  her  at  once  to-night.  Yet 
she  is  so  sadly  changed  that  I  never  thought  of  my 
old  friend.  I  saw  the  notice  of  her  father's  death  two 
or  three  years  ago,  and  ought  to  have  written  to  her. 
There  is  no  doubt  of  that.  But  you  know  how  sel 
fishly  we  let  such  opportunities  slip  by  ;  and  I  had 
lost  her  address,  and  other  matters  crowded  upon 
me,  —  and  so  I  did  n't  do  the  decent  and  kind 


22  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

thing.  The  last  I  heard  of  her,  she  was  living  away 
up  town,  near  the  High  Bridge  somewhere,  —  and 
New  York  is  such  a  howling  wilderness.  There 
must  be  something  akin  to  sin  in  a  life  so  busy, 
such  absorption  in  one's  selfish  interests,  as  to  leave 
no  time  and  thought  for  others,  no  matter  how  dearly 
we  loved  them  once.  I  was  very  fond  of  Alice.  She 
was  one  of  the  cleverest,  most  affectionate,  and  alto 
gether  charming  women  I  ever  knew.  It  hurts  me  to 
the  quick  of  my  heart  to  compare  her  face  as  I  saw 
it  an  hour  ago  with  what  it  was  on  her  wedding- 
night." 

She  had  run  herself  down  at  last,  and  sat  down 
to  pant  silently,  while  her  husband  availed  himself  of 
the  gap  to  insert  some  judicial  questions. 

" '  Shiftless '  and  '  fascinating,'  did  you  call  her  hus 
band  ?  What  else  do  you  know  of  him  ?  Were  you 
acquainted  with  him  before  their  marriage  ?  " 

"Very  slightly.  I  never  saw  him  after  the  wed 
ding.  You  may  recollect  —  and  you  probably  don't 
—  that  we  could  not  attend  the  reception  given  to 
them  at  her  brother's,  Mr.  Roger  Lanier's,  on  their 
return  from  a  year  abroad,  —  their  bridal  tour. 
Elizabeth  was  just  six  weeks  old,  and  I  could  not 
leave  her." 

"  Woman's  chronology ! "  interpolated  Dr.  Barnes, 
indulgent  of  the  weakness.  "  That  fixed  the  date  of 
the  marriage  in  your  mind." 

She  nodded  decidedly,  coloring  as  she  laughed. 

"  Of  course  it  did  !  Some  poet  has  made  a  calendar 
of  the  flowers.  The  mother's  way  of  reckoning  time 
is  prettier  and  more  poetical  too,  to  my  mind,  to 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  23 

say  nothing  of  its  infallibility.  Never  dispute  a  date 
determined  by  a  baby's  age.  I  wonder  if  poor  Alice 
has  living  children.  I  cannot  describe  to  you  with 
what  a  shock  I  identified  as  my  gay-spirited,  pros 
perous  school-fellow  the  stranger  in  mourning  that 
was  almost  shabby,  and  with  such  a  woe-worn  face. 
I  felt  as  if  I  had  seen  a  ghost.  What  could  have 
brought  her  to  our  chapel,  or  to  Brooklyn  at  all  ? 
and  out  alone  on  such  a  disagreeable  night,  —  and 
in  Mendebras  Avenue,  of  all  places  in  Brooklyn? 
There  is  a  mystery  about  the  whole  affair.  Then 
the  way  in  which  she  broke  out  in  that  last  hymn ! 
Her  voice  sings  in  my  ears  yet.  William,  I  cannot 
forgive  myself  for  not  recognizing  her  then  and 
there,  The  conviction  is  so  strong  upon  me  that  she 
is  in  some  trouble." 

"  My  blessed  child,  how  you  run  on  !  Even  if  the 
to-you-mysterious  stranger  be  your  old  acquaintance, 
—  which,  mark  you,  I  do  not  admit  as  a  certainty,— 
the  incident  is  simple  and  unremarkable.  For  aught 
you  know,  she  may  be  living  in  Brooklyn,  and  have 
felt  some  curiosity  to  hear  the  husband  of  her  former 
friend  preach,  granting  that  nothing  else  led  her  to 
attend  divine  service.  It  is  clear  that  she  did  not 
recognize  you,  or  she  would  have  waited  to  speak 
to  you.  Eighteen  years  have  changed  you  as  well  as 
herself.  For  the  better,  allow  me  to  say, "  the  gen 
uine  affection  that  underlay  the  thin  crust  of  conceit 
fostered  by  parish  adulation,  breaking  through  in  an 
appreciative  gleam  as  he  surveyed  the  matron  who 
was  ten  years  his  junior,  and  looked  fully  fifteen 
years  younger  ;  "  but  time  exacts  tribute  of  us  all. 


24  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

The  comeliness  of  forty-five  is  not  the  bloom  of 
twenty." 

For  once  the  wife  was  unmindful  of  the  conjugal 
compliment.  Her  elbow  on  the  arm  of  her  chair,  her 
cheek  on  her  hand,  she  was  gazing  into  the  past. 

"Maybe  she  shrank  from  meeting  me,"  she  said 
thoughtfully.  "  Times  have  evidently  altered  for  the 
worse  with  her.  She  was  always  proud.  She  came 
of  old  Huguenot  stock,  and  they  thought  a  great  deal 
of  family  honor.  There  were  three  sisters.  One  lives 
in  San  Francisco,  another  in  England ;  both  are  older 
than  Alice.  The  only  living  brother,  Roger  Lanier, 
was  especially  fond  of  her.  He  was  one  of  the  best, 
yet  proudest,  men  I  ever  saw,  —  a  model  of  business 
integrity.  I  see  his  name  in  the  papers  now  and 
then  in  connection  with  benevolent  and  religious  enter 
prises.  He  is  very  rich,  I  imagine.  I  should  n't  think 
he  would  let  Alice  suffer  for  want  of  money." 

"  It  is  highly  improbable !  "  said  Dr.  Barnes,  dryly, 
glancing  at  his  manuscript.  It  was  Friday  night,  and 
his  first  sermon  for  Sunday  was  unfinished.  "Per 
haps  she  is  a  widow." 

"  Oh,  I  think  not !  It  is  more  likely  that  he  has 
been  unsuccessful  in  business.  She  was  not  in  widow's 
weeds.  You  asked  what  I  know  about  Ernest  Paull. 
He  was  a  banker,  or  a  broker,  or  something  that 
sounded  rich,  and  promised  to  make  him  richer. 
Papa  thought  him  visionary  and  unstable,  I  recollect, 
and  only  '  hoped  my  friend  had  chosen  wisely.'  You 
know  what  that  means  when  a  man  like  papa  says  it. 
But "  —  starting  briskly  up  and  apologetically  —  "I 
won't  detain  you  any  longer.  I  could  not  help  rush- 


THE  ROYAL  KOAD.  25 

ing  in  like  a  whirlwind  the  instant  the  truth  broke  in 
upon  me.    You  won't  sit  up  late,  will  you,  darling  ?" 

As  she  passed  into  the  hall,  the  monotonous  drip  of 
rain  upon  the  skylight  overhead  caught  her  ear,  and 
she  drew  herself  together  with  a  shrug  of  conscious 
comfort,  as  a  bird  tucks  his  head  under  his  wing- 
when  "  the  north  winds  do  blow."  Home  and  family 
warmth  were  blessings  worth  being  thankful  for  on  a 
stormy  night.  She  went  downstairs  to  lock  up  the 
house  for  the  night.  William  would  not  think  of  it 
for  hours  to  come.  Instead  of  closing  the  front  parlor 
shutters,  she  lowered  the  gas,  raised  the  window,  and 
looked  out  into  the  street,  moved  by  an  impulse  she 
could  not  define.  It  was,  in  English  phrase,  "  a  nasty 
night,"  —  the  sidewalks  and  round  paving-stones  shin 
ing  greasily  under  the  street-gas,  the  rain  falling  in 
hair-like  streams,  close  and  steady.  Without  being 
bitterly  cold,  the  air  made  her  flesh  crawl.  The  pas 
tor's  wife  was  not,  it  is  superfluous  to  remark,  a  rich 
woman ;  but  her  nest  was  cosey ;  her  life,  albeit  not 
exempt  from  the  trials  incident  to  the  changes  and 
chances  of  clerical  existence,  was  sheltered  and  hon 
orable.  Her  William  had  his  ways  like  other  men ; 
but  love  had  piloted  her  among  the  reefs,  whirlpools, 
and  shallows  of  these  for  twenty-two  years,  and  she 
no  longer  feared  or  was  annoyed  by  them.  She  had 
perfect  trust  in  his  sterling  virtues,  in  the  sincerity  of 
his  piety,  and  in  his  love  for  herself.  Experience  had 
taught  her  the  marvellous  art  of  supplementing  her 
partner's  deficiencies  without  letting  him  suspect  that 
she  did  him  this  good  turn,  and,  a  more  marvellous 
thing  still,  without  lowering  her  own  respect  for  him. 


26  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

All  this  passed  so  rapidly  through  her  brain  that 
she  could  hardly  have  traced  the  links  of  the  chain 
of  revery.  Thoughts  of  the  three  children  given  into 
arms  that  opened  in  rapturous  gratitude  to  receive 
them  as  God's  choicest  earthly  gifts;  of  troops  of 
friends,  tried  and  true;  of  opportunities  for  serving 
the  Master,  and  her  kind,  —  overflowed  her  heart 
with  a  sudden  glow  and  rush. 

"  Dear  life  !  sweet  life  !  full  life  !  "  she  breathed 
inarticulately,  tears  warming  eyelids  already  chilled 
by  the  misting  rain. 

A  woman's  figure  passed  between  her  and  the  street- 
lamp  nearest  the  minister's  house.  It  was  wrapped  in 
a  long  black  cloak,  glistening  with  rime.  The  eyes 
looked  straight  forward  ;  the  yellow  light  struck  across 
a  face  that  was  haggard  and  rigid. 

"  Alice  !  "  called  Mrs.  Barnes,  tentatively. 

The  apparition  was  so  unexpected  that  she  could 
scarcely  credit  the  fidelity  of  her  own  eyes.  She 
might  also,  she  reasoned  swiftly,  be  mistaken  in  fan 
cying  that  the  woman  was  the  same  she  had  seen  in 
the  chapel.  Much  thinking  upon  the  incident  might 
have  heated  her  imagination.  She  could  have  believed 
that  the  figure,  already  quite  beyond  her  window,  fal 
tered,  and  glanced  from  right  to  left.  Mrs.  Barnes 
leaned  over  the  sill,  and  repeated  the  cautious  call  in 
wooing  intonations :  — 

"Alice!  Alice!" 

Then  she  ran  to  the  front  door,  and  opened  it.  The 
street,  as  far  as  she  could  see  up  and  down,  was  empty 
of  any  living  presence.  The  dimmed  lamps  and  the 
close  web  of  rain  had  the  night  all  to  themselves. 


CHAPTER    II. 


The  hardness  of  our  task  lies  here :  that  we  have  to 
strive  against  the  grievous  things  of  life  while  hope 
remains,  as  if  they  were  evil,  and  then,  when  the  stroke 
has  fallen,  to  accept  them  from  the  hand  of  God,  and 
doubt  not  they  were  good. — J.  MARTINEAU. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ALICE  PAULL  had  gone  out  that  evening  because 
she  could  not  stay  in  the  house.  She  had  never 
tried  to  delude  herself  by  giving  the  title  of  "  home  " 
to  the  two-and-a-half-story  frame  house  with  a  high 
"  stoop,"  on  the  humble  avenue  with  the  high-sounding 
name,  into  which  she  had  removed  with  her  family 
last  April,  yet  it.  was  all  the  home  they  had.  Neigh 
bors  and  neighborhood  they  had  none.  One  can,  if  so 
disposed,  as  easily  live  in  Brooklyn  six  months,  or  six 
years,  without  knowing  so  much  as  the  names  of  the 
people  next  door  to  her,  as  in  the  bigger  city  across 
the  river.  It  is  a  common  error  to  suppose  that  this 
sort  of  indifferentism  is  confined  to  the  rich  and 
worldly. 

Without  guessing  at  the  truth,  the  Paulls  were  the 
more  effectually  isolated  by  the  impression  created  by 
the  household  stuff  transported  from  the  vans  to  the 
two-and-a-half-story  house.  Every  article  of  furniture, 
however  ingeniously  muffled  up,  was  detected  and 
criticised  by  the  denizens  over  the  way,  and  on  either 
side  of  what  figured  in  the  real  estate  agent's  adver 
tisement  as  "  that  desirable  cottage  residence,  at  363 
Mendebras  Avenue,  between  Post  and  Pillar  streets, 
and  combining  all  the  advantages  of  town  and  coun 
try."  There  was  not  too  much  furniture  for  a  small 


30  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

house,  but  the  pieces  were  too  large  for  the  rooms  and 
altogether  too  handsome  for  the  vicinity  —  decided  the 
spectators,  standing  well  back  in  their  upper  chambers, 
not  to  be  seen  through  the  windows.  Mrs.  Gaze,  at 
364,  settled  in  her  mind  at  a  glance  that  the  big 
carved  buffet  must  be  set  in  the  back  parlor.  "It 
could  n't  never  no  way  at  all  be  shoved  into  the  base 
ment  dining-room,  without  they  tore  the  front  of  the 
house  out."  Mrs.  Pry  or,  at  365,  "  wondered  the  new 
folks  next  door  had  n't  traded  off  that  big  grand  piano 
for  a  small  upright."  She  "  admired  to  see  things 
suitable,  and  that  lumbering  elephant  of  a  thing  would 
take  up  the  front  parlor." 

The  crowning  offence  was  a  billiard-table,  to  admit 
which  a  basement  window  had  to  be  taken  bodily  from 
the  casings.  It  set  the  stamp  of  disreputableness 
upon  the  whole  establishment  in  the  estimation  of  the 
steady-goers  thereabouts.  Such  appurtenances  might 
do  for  the  private  residences  of  rich  New  Yorkers  who 
tampered  with  all  sorts  of  soul-destructive  playthings, 
but  it  was  not  what  Mendebras  Avenue,  where  so  many 
people  owned  their  houses,  was  used  to. 

The  Paulls  kept  but  one  "  girl,"  Scotch  by  birth, 
fifty  years  old,  and  an  inveterate  stay-in-doors,  except 
on  Sunday,  when  she  went  a  mile  and  a  half,  clear 
to  Williamsburgh,  to  attend  a  Scotch  Presbyterian 
Church.  Thus  much  was  gleaned  by  a  boy  who  went 
down  on  a  street-car  with  her  one  Sunday  morning, 
and  saw  where  she  got  off.  She  did  all  the  marketing, 
bringing  her  purchases  home  in  a  covered  basket,  and 
taking  in  the  ice  at  the  basement  door  with  her  own 
hands,  never  allowing  a  strange  foot  to  cross  the 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  31 

threshold,  and  resisting  all  neighborly  blandishments 
looking  toward  chats  over  the  back  fence,  and  while 
sweeping  the  sidewalk.  Yet  the  tale  somehow  got 
about  that  the  new  folks  ate  in  the  back  parlor,  the 
billiard-table  being  devoted  to  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  made.  Mrs.  Keeneyse,  at  366,  had  "  hoped 
that  it  was  a  second-hand  affair  bought  cheap  and 
meant  to  be  used  for  a  dining-table.  As  it  was,  she 
hadn't  a  word  more  to  say,  except  that  times  had 
changed,  and  Mendebras  Avenue  was  no  exception  to 
the  rule." 

When  the  weather  grew  warmer,  the  secret  of  the 
novel  scandal  was  soon  out  at  the  open  windows. 
More  than  one  passer-by  on  summer  nights  was  re 
ported  to  have  been  misled  as  to  the  respectability  of 
the  neighborhood  by  hearing  the  click  of  the  ivory 
balls,  and  men's  voices  in  merry  conversation  in  the 
front  basement. 

The  family  proper  consisted,  as  was  soon  ascertained, 
of  father  and  mother,  a  lad  of  seventeen  or  there 
abouts,  a  girl  somewhat  younger,  two  boys  of  ten  and 
eight,  and  a  little  girl  of  six.  Eight  souls,  all  told, 
counting  in  the  immortal  part  of  the  Scotch  "  girl,"  — 
and  a  close  fit  for  No.  363.  True,  the  father,  who 
must  have  been  a  splendid  figure  of  a  man  when  young, 
was  away  from  home  for  weeks  at  a  time.  They  did 
say  that  he  travelled  for  a  New  York  concern  —  silk, 
some  thought,  and  others,  straw  goods.  All  the  family 
except  Mrs.  Paull  and  the  Scotch  girl  were  away  in 
July  and  August.  Somebody  —  nobody  could  specify 
whom  —  had  said  that  they  had  swell  relations  who 
owned  "  places  "  at  Newport  or  somewhere  else,  and 


32  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

took  a  sight  of  notice  of  the  children.  The  oldest  boy 
was  off  at  boarding-school,  or  maybe  college ;  and  the 
biggest  girl,  she  went  away  early  Monday  morning  and 
came  home  on  Friday  night,  so  she  was  most  likely  in  a 
school  in  New  York.  Twice,  on  very  stormy  Fridays, 
she  had  been  brought  home  in  a  bang-up  private 
carriage. 

Taking  all  these  drawbacks  into  consideration,  the 
Paulls  went  ill  with  the  setting  in  which  some  reverse 
of  fortune  had  placed  them.  The  sturdy,  honest  pride 
of  their  neighbors  did  not  revolt  at  the  almost  cer 
tainty  that  the  new  people  had  once  been  wealthy,  and 
in  circles  of  which  they —  the  Mendebras  Avenueites 
—  knew  nothing  except  by  hearsay.  Nor  would  the 
"  bang-up "  brougham  have  held  them  back  from 
"neighboring"  with  the  pale  woman  in  black  who 
was  rarely  seen  beyond  her  doors  by  daylight,  but 
who  had  been  met  a  mile  away  after  dark,  more  than 
once,  walking  fast  and  noticing  nobody. 

Brooklyn  is  the  safest  place  on  the  globe  for  unes 
corted  women  by  day  or  by  night ;  and  this  Mrs.  Paull 
carried  herself  so  like  a  lady  born  who  minded  her 
own  business  and  let  other  people's  business  alone, 
that  she  would  not  be  insulted  even  in  New  York. 
But  —  and  the  "  but  "  was  deep  and  broad  and  long 
and  high  —  there  was  the  billiard-table  in  the  front 
basement,  and  a  something  everybody  felt  and  nobody 
succeeded  in  defining,  in  the  general  air  and  tone  of 
the  household,  that  deterred  sober  housekeepers  and 
householders  from  making  advances  to  the  strangers 
in  their  midst.  And,  finally,  the  new  folks  did  not 
appear  to  have  any  regular  church  connection.  When 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  33 

the  father  spent  Sunday  at  home,  he  sat  near  the  front 
windows,  looking  like  a  picture,  or  a  nobleman  on  the 
stage,  in  a  black  velvet  smoking-jaeket,  and  read  the 
thirty-two  pages  of  the  paper  while  church-goers 
trooped  by,  to  and  from  their  various  places  of  wor 
ship.  In  the  summer  months,  when  Mrs.  Paull  and 
Elspeth  held  the  fort,  they  went  to  church  somewhere 
every  Sunday,  without  fail.  Since  the  children  got 
back,  the  mother  usually  accompanied  them,  presum 
ably  to  some  place  of  worship,  on  Sunday  forenoon, 
but  they  went  sometimes  up-street,  sometimes  down, 
—  a  circumstance  that  pointed  to  spiritual  tramp- 
hood. 

In  Brooklyn,  a  church  home  —  to  wit,  a  pew,  the 
rent  of  which  is  paid  promptly,  and  participation  in 
Sunday-school  or  parish  work,  together  with  a  kindly 
desire  to  do  good  and  to  communicate  to  one's  fellow- 
Christians  —  constitutes  a  passport  to  the  hearts  and 
homes  of  "  regular  residents."  It  may  be  a  primitive 
state  of  society  in  cosmopolitan  eyes,  but  it  is  apostolic 
—  and  Christ-like.  The  household  of  faith  is  not  an 
empty  phrase  ;  the  band  holding  together  the  com 
munion  of  saints  is  strong  and  of  pure  gold. 

Thus  stood  affairs  with  the  Paulls  in  their  immedi 
ate  neighborhood  on  the  evening  of  the  twenty-second 
of  November,  the  Friday  preceding  Thanksgiving 
week. 

Within  doors,  Scotch  Elspeth,  sitting  over  her  tea 
in  the  kitchen,  heard  her  mistress's  step  in  the  lower 
hall,  and  arose  mechanically  as  Mrs.  Paull  entered. 
The  fifty-year-old  girl  had  u  gentle-folk  ways  "  in  such 
matters.  Unless  deprived  of  the  use  of  her  lower 


34  THE    ROYAL   ROAD. 

limbs,  she  would  as  soon  have  thought  of  standing  on 
her  head  as  of  remaining  seated  when  receiving  orders 
from  an  employer.  The  entrance  of  the  latter  was  to 
her  like  the  drill  sergeant's  "  Attention  ! "  to  rank  and 
file. 

Mrs.  Paull  was  dressed  for  walking.  She  was 
never  florid ;  to-night  her  very  lips  were  colorless. 
There  were  livid  semi-circles  under  her  eyes  which 
were  dull  and  deep ;  but  her  voice  was  even,  and  she 
spoke,  as  always,  pleasantly  to  the  elderly  servant. 

u  Elspeth,  I  have  put  the  children  to  bed,  and  am 
going  out  for  a  long  walk.  My  head  aches  badly,  and 
the  walk  may  do  me  good." 

"  It 's  very  damp,  ma'am." 

Elspeth  had  been  an  American  for  forty  years  with 
out  ridding  her  tongue  of  the  North  Country  "  burr." 
She  was  secretly  vain  of  her  excellent  English,  firmly 
persuaded  in  her  own  mind  that  nobody  would  ever 
guess  her  nationality  from  her  speech,  whereas  she 
betrayed  it  in  feature,  voice,  and  accent  to  the  least 
observant.  When  excited,  she  lapsed  into  the  ver 
nacular.  On  this  occasion,  she  did  not  quite  say 
"  verra,"  but  the  y  suggested  the  broader  vowel,  and 
she  rolled  a  pair  of  r's. 

"  I  never  take  cold,  you  know,  and  I  have  my 
waterproof.  Please  leave  the  kitchen  door  open  that 
you  may  hear  the  children  should  they  awake." 

"  I  will,  ma'am.  Do  not  give  yeseF  ony  uneasiness 
aboot  them.  They  '11  likely  not  stir  till  ye  get  back." 

"  Thank  you.     I  hope  they  will  not  be  troublesome." 

The  domestic  never  betrayed  inquisitiveness,  how 
ever  eccentric  might  seem  the  behavior  of  any  mem- 


THE   ROYAL    ROAD.  35 

her  of  the  household.  Her  scorn  of  gossip  extended 
to  her  self-communings,  yet  she  shook  her  iron-gray 
head  at  the  clang  of  the  closing  front  door,  and  poured 
out  a  third  cup  of  tea  with  an  audible  sigh. 

Mr.  Lanier,  Mrs.  Paull's  brother,  and  a  trustee 
under  their  father's  will  of  her  portion  of  the  patri 
monial  estate,  had  spent  a  long  time  with  his  sister 
that  afternoon.  He  looked  grave  and  preoccupied 
when  Elspeth  admitted  him,  and  to  her  eyes  Mrs. 
Paull  had  worn  an  unnatural  aspect  ever  since.  True, 
she  made  talk  with  the  three  children  over  their  even 
ing  meal,  only  cautioning  Tom  not  to  laugh  too  loudly, 
for  "  mamma  had  a  headache."  She  chatted  cheer 
fully  with  them  on  the  way  up  to  bed,  too,  and  would 
make  Elspeth  go  down  to  supper  while  she  undressed 
Gladys  with  her  own  hands. 

"But  she's  aye  one  to  keep  herseP  to  hersel'," 
reflected  the  discreet  Scotch  girl. 

She  had  almost  deserved  the  name  when  she  took 
service  with  Mr.  Lanier  twenty-five  years  before.  At 
"  Miss  Alice's  "  marriage  she  had  asked  to  be  allowed 
to  go  with  her  to  her  new  home  as  chambermaid  and 
seamstress,  and  had  followed  her  young  lady's  for 
tunes  faithfully  ever  since.  Until  after  the  birth  of 
Tom,  the  third  child,  she  had  had  assistants  in  the 
housework,  sometimes  three  or  four  fellow-servants. 
Then  began  the  gradual  decline  in  the  apparent  pros 
perity  of  the  wedded  pair.  There  was  a  bad  crash 
about  the  time  Gladys  was  born,  five  years  ago,  —  a 
crash  so  loud  that  the  world  heard  it.  Ernest  Paull's 
business  career  for  fifteen  years  had  been  a  descend 
ing  scale  :  one  year  a  hitch,  another  a  break ;  a  third 


36  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

a  drag,  with  wheels  that  creaked  dryly.  His  father- 
in-law  had  set  him  up  in  divers  businesses  of  various 
degrees  of  promise,  once  and  again,  and  as  everybody 
knew,  although  not  from  him  or  his  son,  had  lost 
heavily  from  hitch  and  crash,  having  furnished  the  oil 
for  the  creaking  wheels. 

At  his  death,  two  years  prior  to  the  date  of  our 
first  chapter,  he  had  left  his  daughter  Alice  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  in  real  estate  and  stocks,  but  so 
tied  up  by  legal  knots  that  she  could  not  touch  the 
interest  without  the  consent  of  her  trustees  and  her 
father's  executors,  while  the  principal  was  strictly 
entailed  upon  her  children.  The  purport  of  the  tes 
tament  was  unmistakable.  Mr.  Lanier,  Sr.,  did  not 
mean  that  his  son-in-law  should  profit  directly  by  any 
more  of  his  money. 

Elspeth  had  assuredly  never  been  told  what  were 
the  provisions  of  the  will,  or  why  they  should  be 
particularly  obnoxious  to  "  Miss  Alice's "  husband, 
but  a  pretty  accurate  knowledge  of  the  state  of  family 
politics  had  filtered  into  her  mind.  Mr.  Paull  had 
broken  out  several  times  when  she  was  within  ear-shot 
into  caustic  gibes  relative  to  his  wife  as  a  property- 
holder,  and  himself  as  her  pensioner,  and,  whereas,  up 
to  the  senior  Lanier's  decease,  Ernest  had  been  upon 
apparently  friendly  terms  with  his  brother-in-law,  it 
was  yet  more  apparent  now  that  the  relations  between 
the  two  men  were  strained  to  the  point  of  parting. 

Once,  while  removing  the  dishes  from  the  table,  the 
discreet  hand-maiden  had  heard  the  master  of  the 
house  say  in  reply  to  a  question  from  Edwin,  the 
youngest  boy, — 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  37 

"  '  Why  don't  I  stay  at  home  like  other  little  chil 
dren's  fathers  ? '  Because,  my  son,  this  is  not  my 
home  any  more.  It  is  mamma's  house,  and  everything 
in  it  belongs  to  her.  She  holds  the  purse-strings,  and 
your  Uncle  Roger  tells  her  just  how  much  money  she 
can  have  to  support  you  and  your  brothers  and  sisters. 
If  you  were  older,  you  would  understand  that  the 
interest  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  at  four-and- 
a-half  per  cent  (your  uncle  does  n  't  believe  in  a 
higher  rate  than  that)  won't  lodge,  feed,  and  clothe 
eight  people.  Especially,  when  one  of  the  eight  has 
been  brought  up  as  the  daughter  of  one  millionnaire 
and  the  sister  of  another.  Poor  papa,  having  spent  all 
the  money  he  has  made  in  the  last  twenty  years  upon 
his  wife  and  children,  must  scuffle  for  himself  for  the 
rest  of  his  life." 

His  wife's  eyes  had  blazed  indignantly  at  him  from 
a  deathly  white  face,  as  he  said  it,  but  not  a  word 
escaped  her. 

The  scene  was  one  of  many  that  made  Elspeth 
return  thanks  morning  and  night  that  she  "  belonged 
to  nae  mon,  gentle  or  simple,  but  could  gang  her  ain 
gait  wi'  nane  to  say, «  Why  do  ye  sae  ?  "  Her  mistress's 
economies  would  have  enlightened  her  partially  as  to 
the  financial  stress  that  had  overtaken  the  family, 
had  none  of  these  streamlets  of  information  trickled 
into  her  ears.  The  faithful  creature  had  to  be  taken 
into  confidence  so  far  as  to  be  made  to  comprehend  that 
Mr.  Paull  had  had  heavy  losses,  and  that  since  the 
children  must  be  educated,  there  was  little  to  spare 
for  luxurious  comforts,  nothing  for  superfluities.  She 
knew  what  Marie,  the  elder  daughter  and  her  mother's 


38  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

intimate  associate,  did  not  seem  to  notice,  —  that  Mrs. 
Paull  had  not  bought  one  new  article  for  herself  since 
she  put  on  black  for  her  father,  that  napkins  and 
table-cloths,  sheets,  and  even  towels,  were  darned  as 
long  as  the  old  threads  would  bear  the  new,  and  that 
the  children's  underclothes,  frocks,  and  jackets  were 
mute  miracles  of  the  mother's  skill  in  repairing  and 
making  over. 

Mr.  Paull's  costume  showed  no  sign  of  thoughtful 
thrift.  To  be  well  dressed  was  a  part  of  the  stock-in- 
trade  of  a  "  man  on  the  road."  He  had  travelled  for 
several  houses  in  the  last  five  years,  his  handsome 
face  and  pleasing  address  going  further  in  recom 
mending  him  to  employers  and  customers  than  any 
body  but  himself  suspected.  If  he  ever  reckoned  up 
his  assets,  he  put  these  down  at  double  their  real 
value.  He  had  no  trouble  in  getting  a  position. 
Keeping  it  was  another  thing.  In  the  "  dull  season," 
he  found  recreation  at  the  Rangeley  Lakes,  Les  Che- 
naux,  or  the  Adirondacks.  As  a  crack  shot  and  expert 
fly-fisherman,  he  had  what  he  would  have  described 
as  "  a  national  reputation,"  and  was  welcome  wher 
ever  sportsmen  congregated.  The  air  of  these  resorts 
and  the  society  found  there  were  absolutely  necessary 
for  building  up  his  health  and  spirits  to  sustain  the 
hardships  of  the  next  winter's  campaign. 

As  he  informed  his  wife,  he  made  barely  enough  to 
meet  his  few  personal  expenses  and  to  pay  the  rent  of 
a  house  in  which  his  family  could  live.  He  had  no 
home,  and  never  expected  to  have  one  until  his  wife 
should  buy  a  six-feet-two  lot  for  him  in  Greenwood. 
There  was  an  insurance  of  ten  thousand  dollars  upon 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  39 

his  worthless  life,  he  would  add  jocularly.  Without 
alluding  to  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Paull  paid  the  yearly 
premium  upon  it,  he  liked  to  jest  upon  the  profit  she 
would  derive  from  his  death.  Perhaps  she  might  pre 
vail  upon  her  trustee  to  spare  her  a  few  dollars  for  a 
slate  headstone ;  or  one  of  marbleized  iron  would 
make  more  show  for  less  money.  As  to  lettering, 
there  would  be  no  sense  in  wasting  her  wealth  in 
epitaphical  lies.  "  Here  lies  a  failure  !  "  would  cover 
the  whole  ground,  and  unite  truth  and  pathos. 

He  was  sentimentally  fond  of  his  children,  partic 
ularly  of  his  pretty  daughter,  Marie,  whose  resem 
blance  to  himself  was  delicious  flattery.  Had  he 
spent  more  time  with  them,  he  would  have  vitiated 
the  mother's  wholesome  influence.  As  it  was,  with 
all  the  love  and  respect  they  bore  her,  they  were 
inclined  to  pity  him  as  the  victim  of  circumstances, 
and  Marie  to  wonder  that  mamma  did  not  sell  houses 
or  stocks,  or  make  some  other  effort  to  enable  them 
all  to  live  together  the  year  round.  When  a  hint  of 
this  veiled  feeling  transpired,  Alice  Paull  held  her 
peace.  What  was  there  that  she  could  say  ? 

She  had  never  uncovered  the  grinning  skeleton  in 
the  closet  of  her  heart  even  to  the  brother  who  was 
her  confidant  in  all  else,  or  so  much  as  confessed  to 
him  that  her  husband  had  a  fault. 

He  had  visited  her  on  this  afternoon  upon  a  pain 
ful  errand,  and  as  a  man  of  sense  and  feeling,  had 
done  it  without  cruel  delays.  So-called  preparation 
for  bad  news  is  but  so  many  additional  turns  of  the 
rack-screw. 

Ernest  Paull  had  gone  abroad  that  morning,  leav- 


40  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

ing  a  letter  to  be  delivered  to  Roger  Lanier  after  he 
had  sailed.  It  commissioned  him  to  break  the  truth 
to  his  sister.  Mr.  Paull  had  speculated  with  money 
collected  by  him  for  his  late  employers,  and  lost  it. 
Since  he  had  no  private  resources  on  which  to  draw 
for  reparation  of  the  misfortune,  he  had  but  one  re 
sort,  —  flight. 

Where  he  obtained  funds  for  the  voyage  and  the 
proposed  sojourn  in  a  foreign  land,  he  did  not  see  fit 
to  specify.  The  date  of  his  return  was,  in  the  cir 
cumstances,  so  remote  and  uncertain  that  his  wife 
would  act  wisely  in  basing  no  calculations  upon  the 
event.  She  must  shape  her  future  course  according 
to  her  own  judgment  and  her  brother's  advice.  This 
would  be  the  easier,  inasmuch  as  these  had  been  the 
rule  of  her  faith  and  practice  for  many  months.  Her 
husband,  since  his  severe  pecuniary  losses  set  in,  had 
been  such  an  insignificant  factor  in  her  existence  that 
his  withdrawal  from  the  scene  of  action  would  not 
affect  her  seriously,  except  so  far  as  it  wounded  the 
Lanier  pride.  For  himself,  he  had  found  this  same 
pride  an  expensive  —  he  might  say  a  ruinous  — 
luxury  for  a  poor  man. 

Her  marriage  —  before  her  judgment  was  matured 
by  the  influence  of  heredity  and  advice — to  one 
whom  she  had  chosen  to  treat  as  a  cipher  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  unit  representing  her  potent  per 
sonality,  was  the  fatal  blunder  of  her  life. 

"  I  forbear  to  add,  of  mine  also,  conscious  as  I  am 
that  that  would  count  for  little  in  her  opinion  and  that 
of  her  counsellors.  My  heart  is  wrung  to  bleeding 
by  the  thought  of  leaving  my  children  (God  bless  and 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  41 

keep  them  forever !  ).  Had  I  been  permitted  to  exer 
cise  the  sacred  privilege,  I  would  have  proved  myself 
more  to  them  than  a  father  in  name  only.  As  man 
and  husband,  I  will  not  interfere  with  their  mother's 
management  of  them.  Sometimes  I  dream  that  in 
the  days  to  come,  when  she  sees  reflected  in-  their 
innocent  faces  the  lineaments  of  the  unhappy  being 
whom  she  once  believed  that  she  loved,  whose  mis 
fortune,  not  whose  fault,  it  has  been  to  forfeit  that 
affection,  —  she  may  so  far  compromise  with  her  stern 
sense  of  rectitude  as  to  let  them  speak  of  the  exile 
now  and  then,  and  affectionately.  I  cannot  bear  to 
think  that  my  darlings  will  forget  me  utterly.  I 
know  that  she  will  refrain  from  poisoning  their  minds 
against  me.  In  this  I  trust  to  her  magnanimity. 

"  This  is  the  sum  of  my  requests  to  your  sister, 
Mr.  Lanier.  Knowing,  as  I  do,  how  severe  are  her 
ideas  upon  certain  subjects,  how  relentless  her  preju 
dices  against  every  form  of  speculation ;  that  she 
esteems  all  games  and  operations  in  which  chance 
has  a  part  as  inventions  of  the  Enemy  of  souls,— 
I  comprehend  fully  what  degree  of  charity  will  be 
used  in  computing  the  iniquity  of  this,  my  latest  and 
heaviest  disaster." 

Such  was  the  letter  placed  in  Alice  PaulPs  hands 
by  her  brother  with  the  simple  preface,  "  My  dear 
sister,  I  am  the  bearer  of  disagreeable  news.  It  is  all 
written  here  in  your  husband's  hand.  May  our 
Heavenly  Father  grant  you  strength  to  bear  it  and 
to  live  for  your  children  !  " 

She  read  the  four  closely  written  pages  through, 
down  to  the  signature,  and  turned  back  to  the  letter- 


42  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

head  to  see  that  it  bore  the  date,  — "  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel,  Thursday  morning,  November  the  twenty-first, 
188-,"  and  letting  her  hand  with  the  letter  fall  in  her 
lap,  looked  down  at  it  as  at  a  horror  that  had  changed 
her  to  stone. 

"  He  is  a  thorough  villain,  —  a  hypocritical  villain  ! " 
said  Roger  Lanier,  in  wrath  the  deeper  for  his  enforced 
self-control.  "  He  knew  every  word  he  has  written 
concerning  you  to  be  a  lie,  deliberately  planned  to 
wound  in  the  tenderest  sensibilities  the  best,  most 
patient,  most  heroic  wife  that  was  ever  bestowed  upon 
one  so  utterly  unworthy  of  her." 

She  turned  the  letter  over  in  stunned  bewilderment, 
seeming  to  study  it  for  further  light. 

"  I  have  not  been  patient,  brother ;  I  have  tried  to 
do  right,  but  I  am  not  naturally  amiable,  as  you 
know.  Perhaps  I  have  never  understood  him  ;  never 
made  allowances  for  the  temperament  and  education 
that  were  so  unlike  mine." 

"  You  have  ruined  your  life  for  his  sake  ! " 

"  I  gave  it  to  him  when  I  married  him  —  that  and 
everything  else  I  had  or  hoped  to  have  — '  for  better, 
for  worse,  for  richer,  for  poorer.'  " 

The  low,  hopeless  tones,  the  dry  eyes,  worst  of  all, 
the  wan,  lightless  smile  that  went  with  the  words,  cut 
the  listener  to  the  heart.  He  burst  out  with  an  im 
patient  ejaculation. 

"  Alice  !  I  cannot,  I  will  not  have  you  blame  your 
self.  You  shall  not  attempt  to  excuse  him.  Have  I 
not  seen  the  several  steps  of  your  disillusion,  yet  was 
obliged  to  hold  my  tongue  ?  Ernest  Paull  has  proved 
himself  a  specious,  utterly  selfish  braggart,  unstable 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  43 

in  principle,  in  action  —  in  everything  but  evil.  You 
cannot  conceal  this  from  yourself.  Why  try  to  make 
me  think  that  you  do  ?  " 

She  raised  her  eyes,  blank  and  miserable,  to  his  face. 

"  Must  the  children  hear  of  this  ?  He  is  their 
father,  Roger.  He  loves  them,  and  they  love  him. 
Or  is  it  inevitable  that  the  story  should  be  made 
public?" 

"  We  will  do  our  best  to  hush  it  up.  I  have  seen 
the  men  to  whom  he  owes  the  money.  There  will 
be  no  prosecution." 

She  took  him  up  on  the  instant. 

"  Because  you  have  made  good  their  loss ! " 

"  Hush  !  That  is  neither  here  nor  there.  His 
name  is  the  same  as  yours  and  your  children's.  My 
chief  concern  is  your  comfort  and  happiness.  This 
man  must  be  a  stranger  to  you  from  this  time  forth." 

"  I  am  his  wife,  Roger !  " 

He  started  up,  strode  to  the  window,  and  remained 
there,  his  head  bent,  his  fingers  knotted  behind  his 
back,  seeming  to  stare  into  the  little  yard  where 
Elspeth  was  stretching  dish-towels  upon  the  line. 
Her  stuff  skirt  was  folded  back  above  her  knees,  he 
observed,  and  pinned  so  tightly  he  wondered  that  she 
could  walk.  There  were  eight  towels,  and  three  were 
patched.  Elspeth  had  a  blue  cotton  handkerchief  tied 
about  her  head  like  a  turban. 

His  sister  joined  him,  laying  a  timid  hand  upon  his 
cheek,  her  voice  breaking  as  he  drew  her  head  to  his 
breast.  He  stroked  back  her  hair  as  he  would 
his  own  little  daughter's  were  he  compelled  to  deny 
her  petition ;  his  brow  and  lips  were  unbent. 


44  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  Roger,  dear,  don't  be  displeased  with  me !  I 
think  my  heart  is  breaking  with  the  sorrow  and  the 
shame  of  it  all.  And  what  he  says  is  bitter  !  bitter ! 
But  he  is  my  husband,  and,  as  he  reminds  me,  my 
children's  father.  I  vowed  to  forsake  all  others  and 
hold  to  him,  —  to  love,  honor,  and  obey.  Nothing  can 
release  me  from  that  obligation." 

"Except  —  except  —  "  the  blood  flooding  his  fore 
head  darkly  —  "  Alice  !  —  sweet  sister !  believe  me 
that  I  would  not  tell  you  if  I  could  help  it  —  I  made 
it  my  business  before  coming  here  to  see  his  em 
ployers  and  others  who  were  yet  better  conversant 
with  his  life  of  late.  I  have  long  suspected  that  he 
had  other  claims  upon  his  means  than  you  know  of. 
He  has  not  gone  abroad  alone.  I  saw  the  entry  in 
his  own  handwriting  in  the  office  where  he  bought 
his  tickets.  He  registered  '  Paul  Morgan  and  wife, 
Cincinnati.' " 

She  dropped  back  as  if  struck  by  a  bullet.  Her 
brother  caught  her  and  carried  her  to  a  sofa.  She 
had  not  swooned.  Insensibility  is  a  boon  seldom 
granted  to  women  of  her  mould.  There  was  a 
minute  of  voiceless  gasping  ;  her  hands,  groping  con 
vulsively  as  in  the  dark,  found  and  fastened  upon  one 
of  her  brother's.  She  raised  it  to  her  lips  and  pressed 
it  there  before  she  said  hollowly,  — 

"  If  you  can  come  over  to-morrow  to  see  me  —  we 
will  talk  of  what  it  will  be  best  to  do.  Or  —  shall  I 
go  to  you  ?  " 

This  he  would  not  allow.  He  would  call  soon  after 
breakfast.  His  time  —  his  means  —  all  that  he  had 
or  could  do  —  were  at  her  service, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  45 

Then  he  asked  —  for  he  knew  her  as  few  could 
know  her,  — 

u  You  would  like  to  be  alone  now  ? " 

"Don't  think  me  ungrateful  —  but  it  would  be 
better  —  perhaps.  Thank  you  for  understanding 
me." 

She  had  spoken  truly  in  telling  Elspeth,  three 
hours  after  this  interview,  that  her  "  head  ached." 


CHAPTER    III. 


How  long  ?  How  long,  O  Healer  ?    Thou  dost  know 

It  is  not  in  me  to  hold  still ; 
In  meekness,  like  Thy  saintly  ones,  to  bow, 

A  reed  before  Thy  gracious  will. 

A  SUNSET  PROPHECY. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THAT  man  does  not  live  —  he  has  never  lived  — 
who  comprehends  the  iniquitous  mystery  of  a 
woman's  "  constitutional  headache,"  —  the  foe  who 
never  omits  an  opportunity  to  spring  upon  his  prey, 
and  has  all  seasons  for  his  very  own.  Sometimes  he 
is  provoked  to  attack  by  a  fast ;  sometimes  by  a 
feast ;  often  by  insomnia,  and  occasionally  by  too- 
sound  slumber.  Now  he  creeps  by  almost  impercep 
tible  inches  to  the  acme  of  torture  ;  again,  leaps,  fell 
and  furious,  from  his  lair  as  the  sleeper  awakes  at 
morning  to  the  horrors  of  demoniacal  possession. 
With  one  victim  the  agonies  of  nausea  augment  the 
pains  in  the  head ;  with  another,  one  lobe  of  the  brain 
throbs  with  mad  anguish,  and  the  other  is  dull  and 
heavy  as  lead.  A  third  cannot  lift  her  head  from  the 
pillow  without  the  agonized  conviction  that  a  ball  of 
hot  metal,  pulsing  as  in  a  boiling  kettle,  rolls  from 
one  side  of  her  cranium  to  the  other. 

There  is  the  headache  that  assails  the  base  of  the 
brain  and  the  adjacent  cords  of  the  neck,  and  still 
another  form  which  lodges  in  the  temples,  and  one 
variety,  the  seat  of  which  is  the  frontal  bone  and  the 
eyeballs,  making  light  intolerable  and  sight  a  tor 
ment.  No  more  excruciating  form  is  or  can  be 
experienced  than  that  induced  by  mental  pain,  —  a 


50  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

sudden  shock  to  nerve-centres  and  sensibilities.  Then 
the  frightened  blood  retreats  to  the  citadel-brain,  and 
will  not  be  lured  or  compelled  back  to  the  clammy 
extremities ;  shivers  run  over  the  surface  of  the  body, 
and  the  congesting  pores  alternately  contract  and 
gape,  reducing  the  skin  now  to  freezing  coldness,  anon 
to  the  dry  heat  of  fever.  Delirium  is  a  not  infrequent 
accompaniment  of  the  last-named  phase  of  this  plague 
of  feminine  flesh  ;  an  insane  disposition  to  talk  !  talk ! 
talk !  until  exhaustion  or  stupor  intervenes,  or  the 
wild  longing  to  escape  from  the  place  of  torture,  to 
find  surcease  from  suffering  in  the  wilderness,  in  the 
woods,  in  the  sea  —  anywhere,  be  it  in  the  grave 
itself,  so  long  as  unconsciousness  follows  flight. 

Once  in  a  while,  one  reads  in  the  daily  prints  of  an 
unfortunate  —  sometimes  the  loving  and  beloved 
mother  of  a  respectable  family  —  who  leaps  from  an 
upper  window  while  suffering  from  nervous  headache, 
or,  wandering  away  from  her  bed  in  the  dead  of  night, 
is  found,  after  days  of  anxious  search,  in  the  river 
or  at  the  bottom  of  the  well.  Or,  a  healthy,  happy 
woman  complains  of  intense  pains  in  the  head,  and 
after  some  hours  of  agony,  dies  in  convulsions. 

Ah,  dear  friends  !  much  of  tragedy  lurks  in  the 
jests  passed  upon  the  all-convenient  headache  of  the 
novel  heroine  and  the  every  day-woman  of  real  life. 

u  Synonymous  with  heartache  ?  "  Ay  !  and  often 
times  the  synonym  of  the  death-throe  of  heart  and 
brain. 

Elspeth  was  used  to  her  mistress's  headaches,  and 
played  the  skilled  nurse  when  the  "  constitutional " 
malady  routed  the  gallant  will  and  laid  the  wrecked 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  51 

woman  low.  She  was  used,  too,  to  seeing  her  set  off 
upon  the  long  lonely  tramps,  as  often  as  not  in  the 
evening,  after  the  children  were  safely  folded,  — 
walks  from  which  the  sufferer  would  return  languid 
and  tremulous,  but  able  at  last  to  sleep  off  the  duller 
ache  that  had  superseded  keener  pangs.  She  surmised 
—  this  shrewd  and  reserved  servitor — that  a  business 
talk  had  brought  on  the  attack.  Had  she  had  an 
inkling  of  the  real  condition  of  the  thoroughbred  who 
quitted  her  kitchen  with  a  level  chin  and  firm  tread, 
she  would  have  barricaded  the  front  door  to  keep  her 
in  —  as  a  countrywoman  of  hers  had  hundreds  of 
years  before  —  with  her  living  bone  and  flesh. 

The  humid  chill  of  the  outer  air  was  grateful  to 
the  pedestrian's  hot  forehead.  She  halted  at  the  foot 
of  her  porch-steps  to  draw  in  great  breaths  of  it. 
The  gloom  of  the  ill-lighted  streets,  where  gas  fought 
feebly  with  the  falling  fog,  was  welcome  to  eyes 
strained  with  staring  into  a  future  peopled  with 
dreads. 

She  had  loved  her  husband  through  indifference 
and  open  neglect  and  active  unkindness ;  had  served 
him  as  a  dog  his  master,  after  she  knew  there  was 
nothing  to  be  gained  by  fidelity  of  service.  Years 
ago  —  after  long  striving,  at  first  sanguine,  finally 
desperate  —  she  had  resigned  all  hope  of  winning  him 
to  a  higher  manhood ;  had  tried  to  accept  him  as  he 
was  and  must  ever  remain,  and  to  make  the  very  best 
of  the  poor  remnant  of  her  happy  dream  of  their 
united  lives.  Only  He  whom  she  besought  without 
ceasing  to  give  her  grace,  wisdom,  and  patience,  knew 
with  what  ingenuity  she  had  endeavored  to  cloak 


52  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Ernest's  faults,  and  to  make  home  attractive  to  the 
unsuccessful  man  sour  with  discontent,  and  at  war 
with  fortune. 

The  billiard-table  was  put  into  their  New  York 
house  against  her  wishes.  But  when  it  was  a  fixture 
and  her  husband's  solace  in  moodiness  and  petulance, 
she  became  his  pupil,  and  learned  to  play  a  better 
game  than  most  of  the  boon  companions  he  liked  — 
and  she  dreaded — to  see  about  him.  She  made  it 
convenient  to  be  much  in  the  room  when  billiards 
were  played  ;  and  in  her  presence  there  was 
none  of  the  betting  she  was  confident  ran  high  at 
other  times.  She  detested  all  games  of  cards,  as  her 
father  had  before  her,  but  Ernest  encountered  nowhere 
else  so  clever  an  opponent  at  backgammon  and  chess. 
Music  was  his  most  innocent  recreation ;  and  she 
devoted  to  her  piano-practice  whole  hours  of  the  day 
which  she  knew  she  must  make  up  by  toiling  late 
into  the  night  over  her  needle.  His  fastidious  ear 
must  not  be  offended  by  slovenl}'  execution  or  false 
notes  when  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  ask  for  a 
musical  evening. 

Love  in  such  natures  as  this  woman's  is  of  a  hardier 
growth  than  respect.  Her  stubborn  fealty  to  her 
husband  never  allowed  her  to  confess  in  her  inmost 
thoughts  that  she  despised  him.  She  was  too  honest 
to  pretend,  in  thought  or  in  prayer,  that  she  had 
honored  him  for  the  last  ten  years. 

She  could  have  told  the  day  and  hour  when  respect 
died  an  unnatural  death.  Ernest  Paull  was  the  trea 
surer  of  a  charitable  society  connected  with  the  church 
to  which  he  and  his  wife  belonged,  and  he  had  appro- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  53 

priated,  to  purposes  of  his  own,  funds  held  by  him  in 
trust  for  the  organization.  He  had  used  the  money 
for  necessary  expenses,  he  stated  briefly  to  his  wife. 
A  woman  of  her  breeding  and  tastes  entailed  upon 
her  husband  the  obligation  to  live  beyond  his  income. 
He  dragged  a  lengthening  chain  of  debt,  and  expected 
to  do  this  while  he  lived  ;  but  this  five  or  six  hundred 
dollars  —  maybe  it  had  mounted  up  to  a  thousand  by 
this  time  —  must  be  made  up  in  some  way,  and  speed 
ily,  or  he  was  ruined.  To  be  sure,  there  was  the 
river,  or  a  pistol-shot,  or  prussic  acid,  as  an  alternative, 
but  there  might  be  a  disagreeable  degree  of  publicity 
connected  with  that  expedient.  All  this  he  uttered 
airily  between  the  puffs  of  his  cigar,  eying  her  quiz 
zically  —  as  if  curious  as  to  the  effect  of  the  commu 
nication  upon  her  mind. 

With  strange  composure,  that  ought  to  have  warned 
him  of  volcanic  changes  going  on  beneath  the  placid 
surface,  she  insisted  upon  knowing  the  exact  amount 
of  the  defalcation. 

"  An  ugly  word  to  ears  polite,  my  love !  "  inter 
rupted  her  husband. 

"  The  thing  is  uglier.  Tell  me  the  whole  truth, 
Ernest.  Of  course,  I  must  get  the  money  if  you 
cannot." 

"  From  your  father,  I  suppose  ?  "  looking  up  from 
the  row  of  figures  he  was  at  work  upon. 

"To  whom  else  can  I  apply?  I  shall  not  tell  him 
why  I  want  it." 

"  Naturally  not !  "  with  a  faint  sneer.  "  While 
you  are  tapping  the  parental  pocket,  you  may  as 
well  ask  for  two  thousand  as  one.  There  are  other 
liabilities." 


54  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

"  Will  three  thousand  cover  everything  ?  " 

He  assured  her  eagerly  and  seriously  that  it  would 
—  and  more.  In  fact,  it  would  set  him  straight  with 
the  world. 

When  she  went  to  her  father  with  her  request, 
she  stipulated  that  the  money  should  be  a  loan  to 
her  personally,  to  be  deducted  from  whatever  portion 
he  might  have  intended  to  leave  her,  should  she 
survive  him.  In  indorsing  the  check  that  put  the 
whole  amount  into  Ernest's  hands,  she  frankly  told 
him  of  the  condition  named  by  herself.  A  glare 
she  had  never  seen  there  before  flamed  up  in  his 
handsome  eyes. 

"The  woman  who  could  do  such  a  thing  as  that 
when  her  husband  is  the  dupe  of  her  sharp  practice, 
is  false  to  her  marriage  vows  and  capable  of  any  depth 
of  degradation,"  he  said  with  incisive  coolness.  "  Af 
ter  this,  nothing  you  do  can  surprise  me." 

But  he  took  the  money. 

The  straight  sheet  of  November  fog  was,  to  her 
heated  fancy,  the  canvas  upon  which  memory  pro 
jected  this  and  a  succession  of  scenes,  similar  and 
yet  more  revolting.  This  man,  calling  himself  a 
gentleman,  and  controlled  in  bodily  exercise  by  the 
traditions  of  his  class,  had  never  lifted  his  hand 
against  his  wife,  or  failed  in  external  demonstration 
of  the  deference  due  from  his  sex  to  hers.  He  would 
not,  for  example,  have  lowered  himself  in  his  own 
eyes  by  passing  out  of  a  door  in  advance  of  her,  or 
by  sitting  while  she  stood ;  he  would  not  have  helped 
himself  to  an  easy-chair  when  there  was  none  for 
her,  or  kissed  her  with  his  hat  on,  or  failed  to  raise 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  55 

it,  if  he  met  or  parted  with  her  on  the  street.  His 
manner  to  his  wife  was  cited  as  an  example  for  other 
and  less  attentive  husbands  by  their  enviously  admiring 
spouses.  In  society  he  was  "  simply  and  altogether 
charming."  Society,  reasoning  after  the  superficial 
style  peculiar  to  itself,  inferred  that  he  must  be  yet 
more  charming  in  the  bosom  of  his  family. 

An  exclamation  of  intensest  self-disgust  passed  her 
lips.  A  boy,  loitering  homeward  with  a  parcel  that 
looked  like  a  loaf  of  bread  under  his  arm,  turned  to 
look  at  her :  — 

"  Eh  !  what  say  ?  " 

Getting  no  reply,  he  stared  hard  at  her  and  strolled 
on,  rattling  a  stick  against  the  palings  and  whistling 
a  familiar  hymn-tune.  Brought  back  by  the  interrup 
tion  to  her  actual  environment,  Alice  Paull  became 
aware  that  many  voices  near  by  were  singing  the 
same  air,— 

"  Even  me  !     Even  me  ! 
Let  some  droppings  fall  on  me!  " 

She  had  never,  to  her  present  recollection,  noticed 
until  now  the  plain  church  wedged  in  between  its 
neighbors  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  and 
standing  further  back  from  the  street  than  either  of 
them,  as  if  trying  to  make  more  room  for  itself.  The 
singing  was  in  a  building  at  the  rear.  She  turned  in 
at  the  gate  and  walked  down  the  narrow  brick  walk,  — 
an  insatiate  soul-thirst  gaining  upon  her. 

The  familiar  melody  was  the  murmur  and  cool- 
sounding  ripple  of  a  forest  rill  to  the  traveller  upon 
the  scorching  highway.  A  wizened  little  sexton  with 


56  THE   ROYAL    ROAD. 

thin  white  hair  pushed  open  the  inner  door  for  her 
silently,  and  motioned  her  to  an  empty  seat.  The 
singing  ceased  as  she  sank  wearily  upon  the  settee  — 
which  was  the  last  in  the  house  —  and  leaned  her 
head  against  the  wall  behind  her.  Every  limb  ached, 
and  every  nerve  was  a  tense  chord  upon  which  pain 
smote  fitfully  —  always  with  force. 

This  was  the  house  of  God, —  the  courts  in  which 
David,  in  his  hour  of  fever  and  thirst,  longed  to  be  a 
doorkeeper. 

"  The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee  ;  send  thee  help 
out  of  Zion  and  strengthen  thee  out  of  the  sanctuary!" 

The  words  must  mean  something,  or  they  would  not 
be  in  the  Bible.  If  she  were  not  in  perishing  need  of 
help  and  strength,  where  in  all  the  universe  of  the 
all-pitiful  Father  was  there  a  wretch  who  was  in 
extremity  great  enough  to  entitle  her  to  claim  the 
promised  succor  ? 

"  Pass  me  not,  O  gracious  Father ! 
Sinful  though  my  heart  may  be." 

Was  that  the  way  the  hymn  ran  ?  Was  there  no  balm 
for  sorrow  as  for  sin  ?  These  looked  like  good  and 
sincere  people,  —  above  suspicion  as  to  respectability. 
She  was  in  the  right  place  on  that  back  seat. 

"  And  thou  begin  with  shame  to  take  the  lowest 
place." 

"  Grant  one  poor  sinner  more  a  place, 
Among  thy  saints,  O  God  of  grace !  " 

Not  even  that  belonged  to  her  of  right.  She  had 
never  rented  a  pew  in  Brooklyn.  Severe  economies, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  57 

bound  upon  her  by  circumstances  unsuspected  by  the 
world  outside  of  her  home,  had  debarred  her  from 
that  privilege.  She  had  told  Ernest  one  Sunday  on 
her  return  from  church,  that  she  felt  like  a  religious 
poacher.  He  was  in  a  merry,  kindly  mood  that  day, 
or  she  would  not  have  broached  a  subject  fraught  with 
humiliation  of  spirit  to  herself.  She  came  of  church- 
going  people,  who  held  as  part  of  religion  the  obligation 
to  support  the  public  ordinances  of  the  church.  When 
she  married  Ernest  Faull,  he  was  superintendent  of  a 
Sunday-school  and  a  deacon.  He  resigned  both  of 
these  offices  when  he  "  went  on  the  road."  In  four 
years  he  had  not  darkened  the  door  of  a  church,  and 
family  worship  was  omitted  when  he  was  at  home.  In 
his  absence,  she  gathered  the  little  ones  about  her 
morning  and  night  for  Bible  reading  and  prayers. 

Had  she  failed  in  her  duty  to  her  husband  in  ceas 
ing  to  remonstrate  with  him  upon  the  duty  he  owed 
to  God  and  the  church  He  had  ordained  ?  Yet  would 
it  have  made  any  difference  in  his  behavior  had  she 
worried  him  with  argument  and  entreaty  ? 

She  supposed  nothing  made  any  difference  in  any 
thing  now.  She  was  a  deserted  wife.  The  name 
transmitted  to  her  by  a  godly  ancestry  who  had  kept 
it  clean  was  likely  at  any  hour  to  be  breathed  upon 
by  public  scandal ;  would,  perhaps,  to-morrow  be 
dragged  through  the  filth  of  newspaper  notoriety. 
Perhaps  her  picture  and  Ernest's  would  figure  in  black 
outlines  all  out  of  drawing,  —  just  below  the  heading 
in  fierce  capitals,  Embezzlement  and  Elopement. 

Dear  Father  of  pity !  how  wretched  she  was,  torn 
and  bleeding,  and  dying  of  thirst,  soul  and  body  ! 


58  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  Who,  passing  through  the  valley  of  Baca,  make  it 
a  well ;  the  rain  also  Jilleth  the  pools." 

That  tired-looking  preacher  must  have  quoted  the 
text.  It  could  not  have  come  to  her  of  itself.  It  had 
no  relevancy  to  her  case,  except  that  parching  thirst 
actually  suggested  water. 

"  As  pants  the  hart  for  cooling  streams, 
When  heated  by  the  chase." 

Ernest  and  she  used  to  sing  that  together.  He  had  a 
glorious  voice.  In  the  lower  register  the  tones  were 
like  a  bass  drum ;  the  higher  were  pure  and  mellow. 

Why  did  she  say  "had"  and  "were,"  as  if  he 
were  dead  ?  He  was  never  more  alive  than  at  this 
very  moment.  They  would  be  well  out  to  sea  by 
now.  She  wondered,  dully,  between  the  spasms  of 
pain,  who  "  Mrs.  Paul  Morgan  "  was,  and  why  she  had 
never  suspected  her  existence  until  Roger  reluctantly 
told  her  that  her  husband  had  taken  another  wife 
with  him.  There  had  never  been  anything  like  this 
before  in  the  Lanier  family.  They  would  take  it 
hard,  —her  sisters  and  her  sister-in-law.  Maybe  they 
would  blame  her.  The  wife  is  always  blamed  in  such 
affairs. 

Was  she  talking  of  herself?  this  woman  sitting 
among  respectable  Christians,  and  thinking  such 
things  while  they  listened  to  the  words  of  the  man  of 
God  ?  She  —  she  —  Alice  Paull  —  was  a  repudiated 
wife  _  disgraced  forever !  Between  her  and  the 
sharpest  blast  of  the  world's  scorn  was  not  even  the 
thin  veil  of  a  decent  pretence  of  social  caste.  Her 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  59 

husband  —  the  lover  of  her  youth  (and  how  she  had 
loved  and  believed  in  him!),  the  father  of  her  chil 
dren —  had  turned  loose  all  the  furies  of  the  bottom 
less  pit  upon  her,  and  from  afar,  jeered  at  her  misery. 

"All  Thy  ivaves  and  Thy  billows  have  gone  over 
me!" 

"  All,  Lord !  not  one  is  spared  me.  Out  of  the 
depths  —  ah  !  Thou,  who  rememberest  our  frame, 
knowest  out  of  what  depths  —  I  cry  unto  Thee  !  Look 
upon  my  affliction  and  my  pain  !  my  affliction  and  my 
pain  !  my  pain  I " 

She  had  not  known  where  she  was  for  a  while,  in 
the  temporary  stupor  that  yet  did  not  release  her 
from  the  sense  of  suffering.  Her  head  lay  against 
the  hard  wall ;  the  heavy  lids  drooped  until  the  eyes 
were  almost  hidden,  while  the  neat  little  prayers,  well 
put  together  and  singularly  correct  in  phraseology 
and  grammatical  construction  for  a  plain,  middle-class 
congregation,  were  addressed  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
For  aught  they  asserted  or  implied,  every  brother  — 
and,  judging  by  association,  every  sister —  there  had 
had  precisely  the  same  temptations  and  the  same 
deliverances  from  temptations,  the  same  sorrows,  and 
joys  as  like  to  one  another  as  impressions  stamped 
by  one  and  the  same  die. 

As  the  rustle  of  consciousness  that  the  duty  of  the 
evening  was  done,  ran  through  the  audience  with  the 
rising  of  the  pastor  to  announce  the  last  hymn,  Alice 
Paull  sat  upright,  a  movement  that  concealed  from 
her  the  face  of  the  woman  at  the  melodeon.  A  name 
less  quality  in  the  touch  upon  the  keys  sent  a  faint 
thrill  to  the  clammy  hands  and  feet ;  as  the  flexible 


60  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

soprano,  tenderly  devout,  took  up  the  words  of  the 
sacred  song,  the  heart  of  the  stranger  within  the 
sacred  gates  was  moved  to  longing  that  had  in  it 
some  element  of  hope,  —  a  wave  of  passionate  desire, 
bursting  bounds  in  the  strain  that  electrified  the 
hearers. 

A  wave,  the  undertow  of  which  swept  her  out  again 
into  the  outer  night. 

She  was  never  able  to  recall,  and  Elspeth  could  only 
guess  by  her  drenched  clothing  and  hair,  and  the  mire 
clogging  her  boots,  how  long  or  how  far  she  walked 
after  the  service  was  over.  She  may  have  wandered 
around  and  around  in  a  circle,  a  dim  sense  that  she 
ought,  by-and-by,  to  go  home  to  her  children  keeping 
her  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mendebras  Avenue,  if  hers 
was  the  figure  that  passed  her  old  school-fellow's  win 
dow  at  ten  o'clock.  It  was  about  eleven  when  the  old 
servant,  keeping  watch  at  the  darkened  parlor-window, 
saw  her  mistress  come  laggingly  up  the  steps,  and 
hastened  to  open  the  door  for  her. 

"  Ah,  Elspeth  !  You  should  not  have  sat  up  for 
me.  Are  the  children  all  right  ?  " 

She  brought  out  the  words  with  an  effort,  taking 
short  breaths  between  them.  While  speaking,  she 
gained  the  stair-foot  and  began  to  go  up,  without 
waiting  for  an  answer.  As  she  climbed,  she  caught 
at  the  balustrade  and  lifted  her  feet  with  evident 
difficulty. 

"  It 's  yesel',  ma'am,  I  should  be  speiring  after,  I  'm 
thinking." 

Elspeth  said  it  behind  her  teeth,  and  followed  her 
mistress  to  her  room  at  a  discreet  distance.  She 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  61 

brought  forward  an  easy-chair,  and  as  Mrs.  Paull 
mechanically  sank  into  it,  began  to  undress  her  as  she 
might  Gladys,  if  the  child  had  been  caught  in  a 
shower,  —  swiftly  and  silently. 

Mrs.  Paull  submitted  without  demur.  When  her 
bonnet  was  removed,  she  let  her  head  drop  against  the 
cushioned  back  of  the  chair ;  her  hands  were  limp, 
and  cold  as  clay.  Not  a  sound  was  heard  in  the  room 
but  the  dull  "frou-frou"  of  the  soaked  garments,  as 
the  servant  drew  them  off  and  shook  out  the  moisture, 
and  her  stepping  to  and  fro.  When  a  wadded  wrapper 
was  put  on  over  the  night-dress,  Elspeth  folded  a  thick 
shawl  about  the  lady's  knees,  and,  sitting  down  upon 
the  floor,  took  the  cold  feet  in  her  lap  and  chafed  them 
fast  and  hard. 

The  languid  lids  were  partially  lifted,  one  lax  hand 
moved  toward  the  Scotchwoman's  shoulder,  but  fell 
back  without  reaching  it. 

"  Faithful  among  the  faithless  found  !  "  said  a  hoarse 
whisper. 

She  dozed  off  again,  not  awaking  while  Elspeth 
wrapped  her  feet  in  warm  flannel,  laid  them  upon  a 
cushion,  and  went  to  the  bath-room  for  hot  water  with 
which  to  fill  a  rubber  bag  to  put  between  the  sheets. 
The  sealed  lids  did  not  flicker  even  when  she  was 
lifted  in  a  pair  of  strong  arms  and  deposited  in  the 
bed. 

u  Miss  Alice  !  my  dear  mistress  !  wull  ye  please  tak' 
a  sup  o'  this  ?  " 

It  was  more  the  unwonted  sob  in  the  voice  that 
spoke  than  the  call  itself  that  reached  the  lethargic 
brain.  Elspeth  had  slipped  one  arm  under  the  heavy 


62  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

head,  and  held  a  steaming  cup  in  the  other  hand.  A 
strange  smile  drew  the  lips  apart ;  the  patient  bent 
them  to  the  draught,  and  swallowed  it  eagerly,  as  if 
consumed  by  inward  fever.  As  the  servant  returned 
to  the  bed  after  setting  away  the  empty  cup,  she  met 
the  full  gaze  of  eyes  that  had  in  them  mysterious 
meaning. 

"  Elspeth !  I  heard  my  mother  call  me  three  times 
to-night.  I  think  —  I  hope  that  I  am  going  to  her ! " 

"  It  wad  be  nobbut  yo'  fancy,  ma'am.  Ye  are  often 
times  light  o'  head  wi'  th'  headache." 

"  No  !  my  head  is  a  little  confused  now,  but  it  was 
clear  then,  —  quite  clear.  I  was  walking  fast,  and 
certainly  not  thinking  of  her.  There  was  nobody  in 
sight  in  the  street,  for  it  was  raining.  I  heard  her  as 
distinctly  as  I  hear  my  own  voice  at  this  instant.  She 
called, '  Alice  !  Alice  !  Alice  ! '  tenderly ;  oh,  so  sweetly 
and  lovingly  !  I  am  glad  that  she  wants  me ! " 


CHAPTER   IV. 


There  is  a  plan  working  in  our  lives  ;  and  if  we  keep  our 
hearts  quiet  and  our  eyes  open,  it  all  works  together  ;  and 
if  we  don't,  it  all  fights  together,  and  goes  on  righting  till 
it  comes  right,  somehow,  somewhere.  —  ANNIE  KEAEY. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

ON  the  southwest  corner  of  Mendebras  Avenue  and 
Post  Street  stands  a  yellow  frame  house,  two 
honest  stories  in  height,  and  with  a  twenty-five  feet 
front.  The  effect  of  comparative  height  and  breadth 
is  to  make  the  old-fashioned  dwelling  appear  "  squat " 
among  the  tall  lean  apartment-flats  near  to  it  on  the 
same  side  of  the  way,  and  upon  the  opposite  corner. 
If  you  survey  the  premises  from  Post  Street,  you  will 
see  that  the  house  is  three  rooms  deep,  and  being  on 
a  corner,  that  all  the  rooms  must  be  light. 

There  are  two  bells  beside  the  front  door,  the 
Dutch  stoop  of  which  is  raised  but  two  steps  from  the 
street.  Above  the  upper  bell  was  once  nailed  an 
oblong  strip  of  tin,  painted  white,  lettered  in  blue : 
"  MARY  WILLIAMS,  NURSE,  <fec." 

The  "  <fcc."  was  her  own  unassisted  device,  and  I 
believe  the  idea  to  be  original.  Those  who  had  the 
best  reasons  in  the  world  for  knowing  what  they  were 
talking  of  used  to  say  that,  admirable  as  she  was  as 
nurse,  the  "  <fec."  was  the  best  part  of  her.  We  will 
leave  our  story  to  define  what  entered  into  it  and 
glorified  the  cabalistic  characters. 

"  &c."  may  have  something  to  do  with  some  or  all 
of  the  half-dozen  invitations  which  "  Nurse  Williams," 
as  people  in  whose  houses  she  worked  professionally 

5 


66  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

preferred  to  call  her,  —  using  the  title  generally  as  a 
pet  name, —  had  received  to  eat  her  Thanksgiving 
dinner  at  that  number  of  tables.  She  had  declined 
them  all,  gratefully,  with  the  large,  slow  smile  that 
belonged  to  the  "  <fec."  side  of  her,  and  in  the  round 
gentle  voice  that  could  not  have  gone  with  any  other 
smile.  It  was  not  only  that  the  voice  was  round,  but 
it  was  cushiony  as  well,  never  chopping  or  harsh,  and 
with  never  an  edge  to  one  of  the  agreeable  inflections. 

Nurse  Williams  had  had  a  busy  season  thus  far, 
what  with  whooping-cough,  malaria-dregs  left  over 
from  the  summer,  and  what  figured  in  her  note-book 
as  "  pneumonia,"  in  her  every-day  speech  as  "  new 
money"  (0  long).  Patients  and  their  families  said 
she  had  been  wonderfully  successful,  even  for  her, 
with  all  her  cases  this  fall,  —  "a  sickly  time,"  by  the 
way.  She  had  told  her  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  Barnes,  of 
the  "Jeremy  Taylor,"  last  Friday  night,  when  he 
expressed  his  pleasure  at  seeing  her  again  at  prayer- 
meeting,  that  she  "  felt  to  praise  the  Lord  for  His 
goodness,  and  for  His  wonderful  works  to  the  children 
of  men." 

"  By  the  time  folks  get  to  your  age  and  mine,  doc 
tor,"  she  had  added,  "  that  is  an  old  story,  but  it  is 
one  we  are  never  tired  of  telling." 

In  her  secret  thoughts  she  had  meditated  —  "  if  the 
Lord  did  not  object  —  to  have  a  real  rest-day  treat " 
at  home  on  that  Thursday,  and  to  spend  it  after  her 
own  fashion.  Accordingly,  she  had  betaken  herself 
to  the  butcher's,  the  baker's,  and  the  green-grocer's  on 
Wednesday,  and  laid  in  sundry  stores  suitable  to  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  67 

occasion  to  be  honored  in  the  observance  of  sixty  mil 
lions  of  happy  people  on  the  morrow. 

Among  her  acquisitions  were  a  fat  turkey,  — "  a 
little  dear !  "  she  had  pronounced  it,  to  the  smiling 
butcher's  gratification,  —  only  a  six-pounder,  but  it 
would  surfeit  one  lone  woman  for  a  week  if  she  had 
not  known  where  to  send  what  would  be  left  over  by 
Friday  morning;  a  pumpkin  pie,  with  a  rim  of  flakey 
crust  like  the  setting  of  a  big  gold-stone  brooch  ;  cran 
berries  to  be  made  into  jelly  that  night,  and  to  be 
turned  out,  a  tremulous  scarlet,  semi-transparent 
mound,  next  day ;  a  can  of  French  green  peas ;  two 
oranges  ;  two  pippins ;  a  bunch  of  black  Hamburg 
grapes  ;  a  pound  of  fresh  butter  sent  from  a  New 
Jersey  creamery  by  a  former  patient ;  a  loaf  of  cake 
from  another  ;  and  from  one  of  the  "  new  money " 
convalescents,  a  box  of  superb  chrysanthemums,  — 
Japanese,  with  sweeping  fringes  of  shaded  yellow, 
cream-white,  and  royal  purple.  Generous  moisture 
suffused  the  pleasant  gray  eyes  as  she  made  ready  her 
banquet  at  one  o'clock,  and  sat  her  down  to  the  dis 
cussion  of  the  same.  There  had  been  a  praise  service 
in  the  chapel  of  the  Jeremy  Taylor  at  half-past  nine ; 
and  she  attended  it  in  preference  to  the  union  service 
in  a  grander  and  more  fashionable  church,  where  the 
music  was  sure  to  be  magnificent,  and  municipal 
reform  and  political  corruption  would  be  the  burden 
of  the  thank-offering  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  and 
Author  of  peace  and  concord.  She  was  at  home  and 
out  of  her  Sunday  clothes  by  eleven  o'clock,  and  was 
glad  and  yet  more  glad  of  her  own  nest  with  quietness 
withal,  as  the  snowfall  that  had  lightly  powdered  her 


68  THE   ROYAL   ROAD 

best  bonnet  on  the  way  to  church,  and  coated  the 
sidewalks  an  inch  thick  when  she  came  out  of  the 
chapel,  increased  in  weight. 

It  was  a  damp  snow,  as  most  Brooklyn  snows  are, 
hence,  a  beautiful,  trimming  the  boughs  with  ermine, 
and  changing  the  tiniest  twig  into  the  semblance  of 
white  coral.  It  muffled  footfalls  upon  the  stones, 
the  roll  of  carriages,  and  the  tinkle  of  horse-car  bells. 
Nurse  Williams's  one  personal  extravagance  was  an 
open  grate  fire  in  her  sitting-room ;  and  she  added  a 
generous  lump  of  coal  before  drawing  up  her  chair  to 
the  round  table  set  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  It 
was  one  more  visible  manifestation  of  the  gratitude 
bubbling  over  the  brim  of  her  heart. 

She  asked  a  blessing  aloud  (she  had  never  learned 
to  call  it  "  a  grace,"  being  an  humble  soul),  bowing  a 
chastened  countenance  over  the  hands  joined  under 
the  edge  of  the  hot  plate  awaiting  a  help  of  the  little 
brown  turkey. 

"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven !  bless  to  our  use 
the  food  Thou  hast  provided  for  our  use  upon  this 
happy,  happy  Thanksgiving  day,  and  may  we  draw 
from  it  strength  to  do  and  to  bear  Thy  holy  will! 
Have  mercy  upon  the  poor,  and  incline  the  hearts  of 
the  rich  to  be  liberal  unto  them,  as  Thou,  Lord,  hast 
been  to  them.  We  ask  all  for  our  Saviour's  sake. 
Amen ! " 

In  secret  prayer,  she  always  said  "  we  "  and  "  our  " 
and  "  us."  In  rising  heavenward,  her  thoughts  and 
sympathies  broadened  too  much  to  be  confined  to  the 
first  person  singular. 

It  was  a  bountiful  first  person,  and  pity  it  was,  and 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  69 

is,  that  the  sample  should  be  so  singular  in  a  world 
where  man  so  needs  bountifulness  of  mercy  and  large 
ness  of  Christian  charity.  She  was  five  feet  four-and- 
a-half  inches  in  height,  and  weighed  one  hundred 
and  sixty  pounds.  To  look  at  her  cheeks,  where 
winter  roses  bloomed  healthfully,  the  kindly  mouth, 
the  well-opened  gray  eyes  that  looked  straight  and 
never  boldly  into  yours,  at  the  plump  capable  hands, 
the  backs  of  which,  together  with  her  wrists,  were 
dimpled  like  a  baby's,  —  you  would  have  agreed  with 
me  that  she  could  not,  in  the  natural  fitness  of  things, 
bear  any  name  but  that  of  "  Mary,"  and  that  the 
honest  every-dailiness  of  "  Williams  "  finished  it  off 
as  a  twilled  galloon  binding  a  substantial  jacket. 
She  wore  a  small  cap  over  the  abundant  gray  hair, 
a  cap  with  a  fluted  lace  border,  and  a  bow  of  inch- 
wide  pink  ribbon  just  above  the  somewhat  wide  tract 
between  the  eyebrows.  Her  gown  was  of  a  sensible 
shade  of  gray,  darker  than  her  hair.  About  her 
waist,  compact,  albeit  not  small,  a  full  white  apron 
was  tied  behind  with  broad  starched  strings.  The 
apron  had  capacious  pockets,  and  when  she  was  on 
professional  duty,  the  pockets  had  so  much  to  do  with 
the  "  <fcc."  that  I  should  never  get  to  the  middle  of 
my  narrative  were  I  to  begin  to  descant  upon  their 
properties  and  uses. 

That  turkey  should  have  been  photographed  in  two 
shades  of  brown,  and  done  duty  upon  Thanksgiving 
bills-of-fare  as  the  bird  of  gracious  plenty.  Nurse 
Williams  was  the  very  princess  of  caterers  to  people 
of  slender  appetites,  and  patients  with  no  appetites 
at  all ;  a  firm  believer  in  "  kitchen  physic,"  as  many 


70  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

knew  to  their  comfort  and  profit.  Her  jellies  were 
always  clear,  and  consistent  without  being  tough ; 
she  made  tea  with  boiling  water,  and  did  not  let  it 
stand  in  the  pot  until  it  drew  all  the  bitterness  out  of 
the  leaves ;  she  understood  to  perfection  the  art  of 
keeping  the  juice  in  chops  and  steaks;  she  knew  as 
many  ways  of  cooking  eggs  as  she  had  varieties  of 
broths ;  her  dry  toast  was  never  scorched,  and  her 
cream-toast  was  a  revelation  of  deliciousness.  The 
tiny  dish  —  a  mere  saucer  —  of  so-called  mashed 
potatoes,  flanking  the  picturesque  turkey  upon  one 
side,  had  not  in  truth  been  mashed  at  all,  but  whipped 
to  a  souffle  with  a  spoonful  of  hot  cream  in  which  a 
bit  of  butter  was  melted.  A  coffee-pot,  that  might, 
for  size,  have  belonged  to  a  toy  tea-set,  was  upon  the 
hob,  the  dry  ground  coffee  within  it  warming  into 
willingness  to  give  up  all  its  aroma  by  the  time  the 
boiling  water  should  be  poured  in. 

Nurse  Williams  had  made  but  one  cut  into  the 
turkey  when  a  bell  rang.  The  knife  was  arrested 
midway ;  the  plump  hands  caught  the  expression  of 
expectancy  from  lifted  chin  and  fixed  eyes. 

"  There  now !  I  do  hope  no  poor  dear  creature  is 
taken  bad  on  Thanksgiving  Day  !  " 

By  special  arrangement,  the  little  daughter  of  the 
"  folks  downstairs  "  answered  the  nurse's  bell,  and 
took  in  messages  and  notes  in  her  absence. 

A  hurried  run  up  the  stairs,  a  stride  from  the 
upper  landing  to  the  sitting-room  door  and  a  double 
rap  were  followed  by  a  burly  figure  overtopped  by  a 
good-humored  face. 

"  Good-day  !  good-day,  Nurse  Williams  !     Bless  my 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  71 

buttons,  if  I  have  n't  surprised  you  in  a  regular 
carouse,  and  no  mistake.  Hi!  hi!  hi!"  walking 
around  the  table  to  get  a  better  view  of  what  it  con 
tained.  "  This  is  what  comes  of  being  a  fashionable 
nurse  with  no  expenses  to  speak  of,  and  the  right  to 
send  in  thumping  bills  nobody  dares  dispute.  And  I, 
a  poor  dog  of  a  doctor,  have  n't  had  a  mouthful  since 
I  was  jerked  violently  from  the  breakfast-table,  and 
shall  think  myself  well  off  if  I  get  time  to  steal  so 
much  as  a  drum-stick  at  seven  o'clock  to-night. 
Things  are  not  evenly  divided  in  this  world,  —  no, 
not  if  it  is  Thanksgiving  Day ! " 

"  They  '11  look  evener  to  you  when  you  've  sat  down 
in  this  chair  and  helped  me  cat  my  dinner." 

She  bustled  noiselessly  about,  setting  down  a 
second  plate  to  warm  on  the  fender,  getting  knife, 
fork,  and  tumbler,  talking  all  the  while  in  placid 
inattention  to  the  stream  of  expostulations  poured 
forth  by  the  doctor. 

"  I  understand  now,"  —  he  heard  her  say  when  he 
desisted  in  comical  despair,  and  let  her  push  him 
with  gentle  urgency  into  the  vacant  seat,  — "  I  under 
stand  perfectly  now  why  I  was  let  to  put  off  my 
dinner  until  one  o'clock  when  I  had  meant  as  much 
as  anything  to  have  it  at  half-past  twelve.  A  bit  of 
the  stuffing,  and  a  tiny  slice  of  the  breast  ?  "  heaping 
his  plate.  "  Now,  gravy  !  Oh,  yes  !  I  know  that  you 
high-flyers  don't  dine  until  other  people's  supper- 
time  ;  but  you  'd  ought  to  have  a  hot  luncheon  to  keep 
the  snow-air  out  of  your  stomach  and  lungs,  and  you 
can  talk  better  while  you  are  eating  than  when  you 
are  empty,  and  be  better  able,  when  you  start  out 


72  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

again,  to  study  what 's  the  matter  with  your  patients 
and  what 's  good  for  their  complaints,  if  you  are  full 
than  if  you  are  fasting.  There,  now ! "  resuming 
her  seat  with  a  long  breath  of  benevolent  content, 
"  this  is  what  I  call  a  providence !  I  'm  never,  so  to 
speak,  lonesome  ;  but  it  did  seem  a  shame,  if  not  a  sin, 
for  one  lone  woman  to  be  sitting  down  to  a  genuine 
Thanksgiving  dinner  on  a  snowy  day,  with  never  a 
soul  to  speak  to." 

The  doctor's  hunger  was  as  genuine  as  the  excel 
lence  of  the  dinner.  One  whiff  of  the  savory  air  of 
the  room  had  assured  him  on  this  head ;  one  mouth 
ful  told  him  that  he  had  seldom  tasted  anything  more 
toothsome  in  his  own  house.  Moreover,  he  and 
Nurse  Williams  had  worked  together  professionally 
for  a  dozen  years ;  and  he  knew  that  the  surest 
method  of  getting  his  way  with  her  was  to  let  her, 
in  the  first  place,  have  hers.  He  could  not  help 
laughing  out,  in  his  jovial  fashion,  now  and  then,  at 
the  holiday  adventure ;  but,  being  a  gentleman  at 
heart,  he  forbore  to  intimate  how  much  of  his 
amusement  arose  from  the  anticipation  of  describing 
to  his  wife  over  the  seven  o'clock  family  dinner,  where 
there  would  be  a  dozen  of  his  relatives  and  hers, 
where  and  how  he  had  lunched. 

He  liked  to  shock  the  pretty  woman  who  had 
married  him  after  his  success  in  his  profession  was 
a  foregone  conclusion,  and  he  could  picture  her  in 
credulity  of  dismay. 

Out  of  kindness  to  his  hostess,  he  refrained  from 
"  talking  shop  "  until  he  was  sipping  the  best  cup  of 
coffee  he  had  tasted  in  twenty  years. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  73 

"  You  have  guessed,  I  suppose,  that  you  are 
wanted,"  he  said  then,  dropping  his  tone  of  good- 
humored  banter.  "  It  is  a  case  of  brain-fever,  —  a 
woman.  An  ugly  case,  too,  I  'in  afraid.  Some 
things  point  to  possible  pulmonary  complications. 
It  seems  that  she  had  a  bad  headache  last  Friday 
night,  and  tried  to  walk  it  off.  You  may  recollect 
that  it  began  to  rain  about  nine  o'clock  ?  She  came 
home  wet  to  the  skin,  and  slightly  delirious.  I  was 
called  in  an  Saturday  by  her  brother  —  a  Mr.  Lanier, 
of  New  York,  who  had  happened  to  come  over  to  see 
her,  and  saw  at  once  that  she  was  in  a  bad  way.  Her 
daughter,  an  intelligent,  handy  girl  of  sixteen,  or 
thereabouts,  is  at  boarding-school  in  New  York,  but 
came  home  on  Saturday  to  spend  Sunday,  and  would 
not  go  back  on  Monday  and  leave  her  mother  so  ill. 
She  does  her  best  in  the  sick-room,  and  so  does  an 
elderly  Scotch  woman  who  is  a  sort  of  maid-of-all- 
work  in  the  family,  and  a  capital  nurse  at  that.  But 
there  's  a  houseful  of  younger  children,  and  all  that, 
you  know ;  and  the  time  has  come,  as  her  brother  and 
I  concluded  this  morning,  when  other  assistance  is 
required.  Can  you  go?" 

"  Right  away  ? " 

"  I  'm  afraid  I  must  say  '  yes  ; '  brain-fever  is  n't  a 
thing  to  be  trifled  with." 

She  nodded  gravely. 

"  You  're  right.     Is  she  out  of  her  head  still  ?  " 

"  Raving  —  when  she  is  not  in  a  stupor.  Eyes 
glassy ;  disposed  to  roll  her  head  and  to  pick  at  the 
bed-clothes.  Temperature  an  average  of  one  hun 
dred  and  five.  You  know  the  signs.  Knows  nobody, 


74  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

and  calls  constantly,  when  awake,  for  her  husband, 
who  is  abroad,  and  for  her  mother,  who  is  dead. 
Came  home  Friday  night  with  a  story  of  having  heard 
her  mother  call  her  by  name  three  times  on  the  street. 
Took  it  for  a  sign,  and  keeps  referring  to  it." 

"  Such  things  have  happened.  It 's  a  very  thin  cur 
tain  that  hangs  between  us  and  them  who  have  passed 
out  of  our  sight,  and  we  are  leaning  all  our  weight 
against  it  most  of  the  time.  'T  ain't  surprising  that  it 
should  give  way  in  spots  once  in  a  while." 

"  Yes,  yes !  but,  you  see,  my  good  sister,  this 
woman  is  my  patient,  and  I  don't  want  that  curtain  to 
give  way  under  her  weight,  for  good  and  all.  You 
must  help  me  darn  those  thin  places  you  talk  about 
so  coolly,  —  out  of  simple  humanity,  if  professional 
pride  don't  move  you.  There  are  all  those  little  chil 
dren,  you  know,  —  not  to  mention  the  husband." 

u  It 's  as  well  not  to  mention  some  husbands  some 
times,"  retorted  the  nurse,  with  grim  pleasantry  aimed 
evidently  at  him.  "  But  children  can  have  only  one 
mother  "  —  relapsing  into  seriousness.  "  I  '11  be  off 
in  an  hour,  if  that  will  do.  As  you  say,  this  sort  of 
thing  can't  be  fooled  with,  and  it  seems  to  have  got 
pretty  well  under  way  already.  Where  is  it  ?  " 

"  Not  far  away.  No.  363  Mendebras  Avenue.  The 
name  is  Paull." 

"  I  had  three  cases  of  measles  at  362  last  year. 
They  know  that  I  am  coining  ?  " 

"  I  promised  to  send  a  trained  nurse  before  dark.  I 
am  uncommonly  lucky  in  finding  you  at  home,  and 
disengaged." 

"  Speaking  after  the  manner  of  men,  — yes ! " 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  75 

Dr.  Bacon's  eyes  twinkled  as  at  a  challenge.  He 
stood  up,  brushed  a  few  crumbs  from  his  knee,  and 
glanced  at  his  hat  and  the  overcoat  he  had  tossed 
upon  a  chair. 

"  What  ought  I  to  say  if  I  spoke  after  the  manner 
of  women  ?  "  he  queried  quizzically. 

"  Depends  upon  who  the  women  are." 

She  was  clearing  away  the  remnants  of  the  dinner, 
rapidly  and  with  surprisingly  little  noise  for  a  woman 
of  her  size.  Plates  did  not  clatter,  glasses  did  not 
ring,  or  silver  rattle. 

"  You  '11  excuse  me  going  on  with  this  work,"  she 
said,  apologetically.  "  I  have  n't  a  minute  to  lose,  if 
I  'm  to  be  on  duty  before  dark." 

"  If  you  were  the  woman,  for  example,"  pursued 
the  doctor,  teasingly,  "  what  should  I  say  then  of 
my  luck  ?  " 

"  I  should  say  there  is  no  such  word  in  my  dic 
tionary  ;  nor  in  God's  Word ;  nor  in  His  world 
either,  for  that  matter.  It  is  His  will,  His  wise  and 
merciful  planning  for  our  good  —  which  we  call  provi 
dence  —  that  brings  all  things  to  pass.  Nothing  hap 
pens  by  chance." 

Dr.  Bacon  took  up  an  argumentative  position  upon 
the  hearth-rug.  He  knew  that  he  was  wasting  time 
here,  but  he  was  loath  to  rush  off  immediately  after 
swallowing  a  hearty  dinner;  the  room  was  cosily 
warm  ;  the  out-door  prospect  more  and  more  disagree 
able  by  contrast.  He  would  be  amused,  and  "  laze  " 
for  ten  minutes  more,  before  he  took  himself  by  the 
shoulder  and  turned  out  into  the  storm. 

"  I  've  heard  you  say  so  often  enough  for  me  to  be- 


76  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

gin  to  believe  it  if  I  could  elevate  my  opinion  of 
myself,  or  of  any  other  ordinary  mortal,  to  the  point 
of  fancying  that  the  Maker  of  the  universe  concerns 
Himself  about  my  hourly  goings  and  comings." 

"  If  you  'd  taken  the  pains  to  make  a  valuable  ma 
chine,  I  guess  you  'd  concern  yourself  to  look  after  it, 
and  see  if  it  was  running  regular  and  smooth,"  inter 
posed  the  nurse,  quietly. 

"  But  I  have  n't  learned  the  secret  of  perpetual  mo 
tion,  you  see,  and  He  has  got  it  down  fine.  Accord 
ing  to  my  way  of  thinking,  He  has  established  general 
laws  for  the  government  of  whatever  He  has  made ; 
and  these  laws  go  on,  acting  and  reacting,  from  year 
to  year,  and  from  century  to  century.  Men  are  born, 
and  live,  and  die ;  keep  well  and  get  ill ;  make  money 
and  lose  it ;  are  happy  or  miserable  in  obedience  to 
these  general  laws,  —  just  as  trees  put  out  leaves  in 
the  spring  and  shed  their  leaves  in  the  autumn.  Some 
fruit  comes  to  perfection;  and  some  drops  to  the 
ground  and  decays  unripe.  Some  men  live  to  a  good 
old  age ;  and  as  many,  who  are  born  into  the  world, 
die  in  infancy.  We  can  account  for  the  death  of  one 
as  well  or  as  poorly  as  for  the  other.  The  indi 
vidual  man  is  no  more  in  the  eyes  of  Deity  than  one 
of  those  snowflakes  out  there,  that  flutters  from  the 
clouds  to  the  ground  to  be  melted  as  soon  as  the  sun 
comes  out,  and  be  soaked  up  by  the  earth." 

"  Yes  ?  "  in  civil  reserve  of  her  opinion.  "  T  beg 
your  pardon,  doctor,  but  there's  a  hair  upon  your 
sleeve ! " 

She  plucked  it  off  with  a  respectful  thumb  and  fin 
ger,  and  regarded  it  attentively,  holding  it  between 
her  eyes  and  the  window. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  77 

"  It 's  a  gray  hair  too  !  "  meditatively. 

"  Probably.  There  are  as  many  of  that  kind  as 
there  are  brown  upon  my  head  and  face.  I  look  more 
and  more  to  myself  like  a  gray  raccoon  each  morning 
when  I  stand  before  the  mirror." 

She  was  still  gazing  at  the  hair.  One  might  have 
detected  a  shade  of  reverence  in  her  manner  of  in 
specting  it. 

"  He  says  that  He  has  counted  them  all,"  she  began, 
musingly.  "  Every  one  in  your  head  is  a  reminder  of 
the  close  watch  He  keeps  over  you." 

Still  gently,  she  let  the  hair  fall  upon  the  hearth, 
and  turned  toward  the  window. 

"  I  was  a-pitying  the  sparrows  just  a  while  ago.  A 
row  of  'em  sat  on  my  window-sill.  They  know  when 
I  'm  at  home  as  well  as  if  they  'd  rung  the  bell  and 
had  their  answer  at  the  downstairs  door.  I  keep  a 
pile  of  crumbs  on  the  window-sill  for  them,  but  to-day 
the  snow  had  covered  them  up.  So  I  swept  it  off 
clean,  and  spread  their  table  again  for  'em.  While 
they  were  a-eating,  it  come  to  me  how  many  city -spar 
rows  must  starve  if  the  snow  lay  long  on  the  ground  ; 
and  as  quick  as  that  thought  popped  into  my  faithless 
and  foolish  mind,  I  recollected  that  He  who  made  'em 
keeps  account  of  their  needs,  and  of  every  one  that 
falls  to  the  ground,  and  how  He  has  said  in  so  many 
words  —  not  leaving  us  to  work  out  the  sum  for  our 
selves  —  that  we  are  of  more  value  than  many  spar 
rows.  It 's  the  cheapest  bird  in  the  Holy  Land,  so 
I  've  heard  tell ;  and  pity  knows,  for  all  the  good  they 
seem  to  do,  or  the  use  they  are  as  human  creatures' 
food,  they  are  dear  in  America  at  any  price.  I  should 


78  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

calculate  now "  -  her  head  on  one  side,  her  eyes 
measuring  his  goodly  proportions,  with  never  a  glim 
mer  of  a  smile  —  "  that  a  man  like  you,  in  whose 
hands  are  the  issues  of  life  and  death  (under  the 
Almighty)  for  hundreds  of  people  every  year,  must  be 
worth  more  than  fifty  millions  of  them  noisy  little 
birds." 

Dr.  Bacon's  sides  shook  with  his  jovial  laugh. 

"  The  sparrows  might  think  differently  if  you  were 
to  leave  the  decision  to  them.  Thank  you  all  the 
same,  for  your  good  opinion,  arid  for  the  Thanksgiv 
ing  sermon.  I  haven't  been  to  church  on  Thanks 
giving  Day  for  thirty  years,  that  I  recollect.  I  should 
probably  go  to  sleep  if  I  did.  Your  lecture  has  kept 
me  awake." 

He  moved  toward  the  door,  but  stopped  midway 
to  look  at  something  hanging  on  the  wall. 

"  Halloo !  You  have  been  treating  yourself  to 
some  new  decorations  since  I  was  here  last.  What  is 
it  all  about  ?  " 


CHAPTER   V. 


Our  life  is  determined  for  us ;  and  it  makes  the  mind 
very  free  when  we  give  up  wishing,  and  only  think  of 
bearing  what  is  laid  upon  us,  and  doing  what  is  given  us 
to  do.  —  GEORGE  ELIOT. 

What  is  meant  by  our  neighbor,  we  cannot  doubt ;  it 
is  every  one  with  whom  we  are  brought  into  contact. 
It  is  every  one  who  is  thrown  across  our  path  by  the 
changes  and  chances  of  life,  —  he,  or  she,  whosoever 
it  may  be,  whom  we  have  any  means  of  helping. 

DEAN  STANLEY. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  doctor's  overcoat  lay  over  the  back  of  a 
chair,  where  he  had  tossed  it  upon  entering, 
and  immediately  above  it  was  the  new  frame  that  had 
arrested  his  attention.  It  was  a  tasteful  affair  in 
white-and-gold,  and  within  it  was  what  looked,  at  the 
first  glance,  like  a  testimonial  or  certificate,  engrossed 
upon  white  vellum,  with  an  illuminated  border. 

Mrs.  Williams  smoothed  her  apron  with  both  plump 
palms,  and  approached  her  visitor,  gratification  beam 
ing  from  every  line  of  her  visage. 

"  Ah  !  you  may  well  stop  to  look  at  it.  Just  read 
it  aloud,  won't  you  ?  And  then  I  '11  tell  you  how  I 
came  by  anything  so  nice." 

Dr.  Bacon  settled  his  gold-bowed  eye-glasses  upon 
his  nose,  and  complied.  He  read  with  deliberation, 
pausing  after  each  verse,  as  if  to  satisfy  himself  that 
he  had  rendered  it  with  proper  emphasis  and  discre 
tion.  The  nurse  hearkened  with  the  eagerness  of 
one  who  had  never  listened  to  it  before,  —  her  eyes 
serious,  her  mouth  smiling  tenderly ;  once  in  a  while 
a  gentle  nod  signified  her  appreciation  of  a  favorite 
passage. 

As  the  shepherd  lifts  the  hurdle 

Daily  set  about  his  sheep, 
Shifts  afield  the  wattled  girdle, 

Wills  the  flock  to  feed  and  sleep 
6 


82  THE   ROYAL   ROAD, 

Within  bounds  his  wisdom  orders, 
Faring  as  his  love  assigns, 

Pining  not  for  richer  borders, 
Chafing  not  at  strait  confines,  — 

So,  O  Father !  when  the  morning 

Grayly  steals  into  my  room, 
Be  it  promise  and  not  warning, 

Earnest  of  perfected  bloom; 
Of  wise  willing  and  wise  giving  ; 

To  my  restless  spirit  say, 
•*  All  thou  hast  to  learn  of  living 

Is  to  do  My  will  TO-DAY." 

Yesterdays  —  their  prayers,  their  sinning, 

Bootless  cares  and  futile  tears, 
Thwarted  end  and  rash  beginning,  — 

Are  with  Thine  eternal  years, 
Tales  all  told,  and  sealed  pages  — 

Turn  I  steadfastly  away, 
And  from  out  the  coming  ages 

Reverent  take  the  virgin  day. 

Grace  sublime  of  simple  trusting 

Grant  unto  Thy  servant,  Lord ! 
Without  friction,  without  rusting, 

I  would  take  Thee  at  Thy  word. 
Nothing  boding  and  naught  asking 

Of  the  dim  and  outer  land, 
Glad  to  do  the  tender  tasking 

Daily  laid  unto  my  hand. 

It  may  be  the  safe  surrounding 

Of  Thine  angels'  banding  wings 
Shall  appoint  fair  meads,  abounding 

With  the  dews  of  Baca's  springs. 
If,  instead  of  beauty,  burning 

Be  the  measure  of  Thy  will, 
Let  eyes  made  by  faith  discerning 

See  the  shining  ones  there  still. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  83 

"  I  am  not  much  of  a  judge  of  poetry,"  remarked 
the  reader  when  he  had  finished.  "  But  that  sounds 
pretty  and  pleasant.  It 's  awfully  unpractical,  of 
course,  but  poetry  does  n't  set  up  for  that  as  a 
rule." 

"  There  was  one  gentleman  who  wrote  for  the 
papers,  whose  wife  I  nursed,  who  found  a  scrap  of 
paper  with  those  verses  on  it,  lying  on  my  bureau, 
and  he  said  it  was  '  good  religion,  but  poor  poetry.' 
I  cut  it  out  of  The  Congregationalist  in  the  first  place, 
and  I  'd  read  it  over  so  many  times  it  was  quite 
threadbare  when  he  got  hold  of  it.  I  told  him  he  'd 
maybe  like  it  better  if  it  had  been  in  better  shape.  I 
took  such  a  fancy  to  it,  not  being  literary  enough  to 
know  poetry  from  prose,  that  I  got  into  a  way  of 
singing  it  when  I  was  by  myself.  It  goes  well  to 
Greenville,  Nettleton,  or  Autumn,  or  any  other 
eight-by-seven  tune." 

"  It  is  handsomely  copied  and  decorated,"  said  the 
physician,  kindly  suppressing  a  smile. 

"  Is  n't  it  ? "  said  the  nurse.  "  You  see,  when  poor 
little  Willy  Barnes  was  so  bad  with  the  whooping- 
cough,  and  the  other  two  down,  —  I  never  saw  children 
have  it  harder,  —  and  I  was  called  in  to  help  with 
them,  Willy  would  go  to  sleep  in  my  arms  to  that  hymn 
sooner  than  to  any  other.  And  Mrs.  Barnes,  a-hear- 
ing  me  going  over  it  again  and  again,  and  him 
a-begging  for  '  the  sleep-song,  nursie,'  would  know 
where  I  got  it,  and  all  about  ifc.  After  the  children 
got  well,  —  and,  as  I  needn't  tell  you,  doctor,  I  just 
could  n't  let  my  pastor's  wife  pay  me  a  cent,  for,  as  I 
told  her,  I  came  out  of  her  house  richer  and  fuller 


84  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

in  spirit  than  if  she  'd  given  me  double  price  for  the 
little  I'd  done,  —  she  sent  me  the  two  little  boys' 
pictures  and  that  poem,  all  elegantly  framed,  just  as 
you  see  it,  and  the  loveliest  letter  I  ever  read.  I  told 
her  I  'd  ought  to  have  a  border  painted  around  that, 
and  frame  it  too. 

"You  see"  —pointing  —  "  in  that  corner  is  Willy, 
and  me  a-rocking  him  to  sleep ;  you  'd  know  my 
cap  and  apron  in  Madagascar,  but  the  rest  of  it  is 
altogether  too  good-looking  for  me,  as  I  told  her. 
And  over  there  is  the  shepherd  a-driving  his  flock 
before  him,  when  the  old  grass  inside  the  wall  is  all 
eaten  bare ;  and  the  border  at  the  bottom  is  the 
hurdle.  She  explained  about  it  to  me,  and  the 
meaning  of  '  wattled."' 

She  stopped  to  laugh  here. 

"  Would  you  believe  it  ?  I  had  some  sort  of  a 
notion  that  it  had  something  to  do  with  a  turkey- 
gobbler,  and  kind  o'  skipped  over  the  word  in  my 
singing  and  my  thoughts.  Not  being  educated  is 
a  drawback  sometimes.  And  at  the  top,  —  don't  you 
see  how  the  border  is  all  angels'  wings,  a-touching 
and  a-lapping  one  another  and  a-shining  ?  They  are 
the  '  shining  ones  there  still,'  you  know.  I  never 
mistrusted  what  Mrs.  Barnes  was  up  to  when  she 
asked  me  to  let  her  copy  the  piece  I  'd  worn  into  rags. 
I  was  'most  ashamed  to  have  her  see  it,  but  newspaper 
won't  stand  much  wear." 

The  doctor  recovered  himself  with  a  start  from  a 
critical  inspection  of  the  really  clever  etching,  bright 
ened  effectively  by  artistic  gilding  and  coloring. 

"  By  Jap  !  "  People  forgave  the  enigmatical  adjura- 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  85 

tion  because  he  was  never  heard  to  use  any  other 
under  the  strongest  excitement.  "  You  have  made 
me  waste  a  good  half-hour  here  in  feasting  and  folly 
when  I  ought  to  be  at  work.  I'll  see  you  again  about 
six  o'clock.  I  left  orders  with  the  Scotch  woman  that 
would  hold  until  then.  She  is  a  faithful  creature, 
and  behaved  better  than  could  have  been  expected 
when  we  told  her  we  must  have  in  another  nurse. 
She  is  very  much  attached  to  her  mistress,  and  has 
worked  like  ten  horses  since  she  fell  ill.  Yet  I  shall 
feel  easier  when  you  are  to  the  fore. 

"  Good-by,  and  thank  you  again  for  a  first-rate 
luncheon  and  an  A.  1  sermon.  As  a  human  sparrow, 
—  unless  you  prefer  to  class  me  with  the  snowflakes, 
-I  ought  to  he  better  for  both." 

The  genial  smile  had  not  faded  out  when  he  sig 
nalled  his  carriage,  which  was  toiling  up  and  down  the 
street,  with  clogged  wheels  and  whitened  horses. 

"  That  woman  is  a  character ! "  he  soliloquized, 
after  he  shut  himself  in  and  was  on  the  way  to  his 
next  patient.  "  She  may  be  a  fanatic,  but  she  is  the 
happiest,  jolliest,  most  useful  soul  I  know." 

Not  a  falling  intonation  or  shade  of  expression  had 
betrayed  to  him  her  disappointment  at  the  failure  of 
her  plan  for  securing  her  "  one  real  rest-day."  The 
deep  easy-chair  that  had  descended  to  her  with  her 
name  from  her  grandmother  already  stood  midway 
between  the  grate  and  the  front  windows,  where  the 
light  would  fall  over  her  left  shoulder  ;  and  on  a  stand 
beside  it  that  was  as  old  as  the  chair,  lay  a  well- 
thumbed  copy  of  "  Stepping  Heavenward."  Mrs. 
Barnes  had  introduced  her  husband's  parishioner  to 


86  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

the  incomparable  religious  classic,  which  had  straight 
way  become  a  chief  favorite  with  the  woman  who  had 
little  time  for  reading  of  any  kind.  She  was  wont 
to  speak  of  it  as  "  the  only  novel  she  had  ever 
cared  to  read  more  than  once."  She  was  on  the  fifth 
perusal  now,  and  had  meant  to  devote  all  the  daylight 
that  remained  after  the  dishes  were  washed,  the  white 
cloth  superseded  by  a  red,  and  the  hearth  swept,  to 
enjoyment  of  pages  which  always  helped  and  never 
tired  her.  She  had  hoped,  when  twilight  should  steal 
between  her  and  "  Stepping  Heavenward,"  to  treat 
herself  to  a  refreshing  nap,  her  feet  upon  a  footstool, 
the  fire  making  cheer  on  one  side,  the  snow  curtaining 
out  the  world  on  the  other.  She  had  promised  to 
take  tea  with  the  friendly  "  folks  downstairs,"  and  at 
ten  o'clock  would  be  in  bed  "  trying  to  get  slept  out," 
after  vigils  many  and  wearing. 

As  it  was,  she  summoned  the  little  girl  from  below, 
and  sent  to  her  mother  everything  left  over  from  her 
Thanksgiving  dinner.  There  was  no  telling  when 
she  would  be  able  to  sit  down  again  at  her  own  table. 
At  four  o'clock,  the  cozy  comfortableness  of  the 
"  living-room  "had  given  place  to  the  chill  formality 
of  preparation  for  being  left  u  all  right."  The  chairs 
had  retreated  to  the  walls;  the  table-cover  was  on 
wrongside  out;  the  Holland  shades  were  drawn 
down;  the  still  warm  grate  was  empty  ;  and  Nurse 
Williams,  setting  her  capacious  satchel,  packed  and 
locked,  down  upon  the  floor,  knelt  to  commend  herself 
and  the  task  she  was  entering  upon  to  Him  who  feeds 
the  birds  and  clothes  the  grass  of  the  field.  As  for 
herself,  as  she  confessed  to  this  ever-hearing  Friend, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  87 

the  utmost  skill  she  could  command  could  not  make 
one  hair  white  or  black,  or  keep  in  the  passing  breath 
for  the  thousandth  part  of  a  minute.  She  was,  at  her 
best,  only  a  willing  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  Master- 
Workman.  All  that  she  could  do  was  to  get  it  clean 
and  to  offer  it,  with  the  handle  held  toward  Him, 
until  He  was  ready  to  use  it. 

The  snow  had  been  shovelled  from  the  sidewalk  and 
the  steps  of  363.  The  inhabitants  of  other  houses  on 
the  block  were  apparently  content  to  await  the  slack 
ening  of  the  storm  before  attacking  the  drifts.  It  was 
little  past  four  o  'clock  when  Nurse  Williams  ploughed 
sturdily  through  these,  yet  it  was  quite  dark.  The 
street-lamps  were  lighted,  and  transmuted  into  a 
golden  shower  the  falling  flakes  within  a  radius  of  a 
few  feet  of  each.  Above  the  doors,  and  through  the 
windows  of  the  dwellings  on  both  sides  of  the  way, 
yellow  and  ruddy  lances  of  light  stabbed  the  gray 
outer  glooms.  Here  and  there,  a  shade  had  been  for 
gotten,  or  purposely  left  up  by  a  charitable  house 
holder,  willing  to  share  his  holiday  cheer  with  the 
wayfarer,  and  the  nurse  had  a  picture  of  an  interior 
that,  in  her  unspoken  thought,  "  kind  o'  chirked  her 
up."  She  was  thankful  that  other  homes  were  bright, 
warm,  and  happy,  although  the  fire  upon  her  hearth 
stone  had  been  extinguished. 

Her  subdued  ring  at  the  door  of  363  was  answered 
promptly  by  a  raw-boned,  high-cheeked  Scotchwoman 
with  gray  hair  and  shrewd  eyes. 

"  I  am  the  nurse  sent  by  Dr.  Bacon.  My  name  is 
Williams,"  was  the  visitor's  self -introduction. 

Quiet  tone  and   straightforward   address  were  an 


88  THE   ROYAL    ROAD. 

instant  recommendation.  Elspeth  was  a  true  Gael  in 
her  readiness  to  form  prejudices,  and  her  reluctance 
to  dismiss  them. 

"Ye  are  welcome,  and  ye  can  come  right  up,  so 
soon  as  ye  've  had  a  word  with  Mr.  Lanier,  the  mis 
tress's  brother." 

There  would  be  no  words  wasted  in  preliminaries 
between  these  two.  A  gentleman  appeared  in  the 
doorway  of  the  parlor  while  Elspeth  was  speaking. 

"  Good-evening,  Mrs.  Williams.  You  can  take  her 
valise  upstairs,  Elspeth.  She  will  be  up  in  a  few 
moments.  Wait  for  her  in  the  upper  hall." 

He  spoke  courteously,  but  with  authority ;  his 
refined  face  and  bearing  bespoke  the  gentleman  ;  his 
expression  was  grave  to  sadness. 

"  Please  step  into  this  room,"  he  continued,  stand 
ing  back  to  let  her  precede  him.  "  I  'm  Mr.  Lanier, 
of  New  York.  Mrs.  Paull  is  my  sister.  Mrs.  Lanier 
-  my  wife  —  is  confined  to  the  house  by  a  severe 
cold,  or  she  would  be  here.  In  her  absence,  the  re 
sponsibility  of  superintending  the  arrangements  for 
Mrs.  Paull's  comfort  devolves  upon  me."  He  bent  a 
scrutinizing  gaze  upon  the  matronly  face,  respectful 
and  interested.  "  I  need  not  explain  to  you  how  use 
less  a  man  is  in  a  sick-room.  My  sister  is  very  dear 
to  me,  —  and  to  my  wife,  —  and  she  is  dangerously  ill. 
T  wish  you  to  spare  no  trouble  or  expense  in  her  behalf. 
Dr.  Bacon's  recommendation  is  security  for  your  skill, 
and  for  your  discretion.  I  wish  you,  furthermore,  to 
be  perfectly  candid  in  your  reports  of  her  condition 
from  day  to  day.  I  may  say,  also,"  —  another  and 
longer  look,  —  "  what  it  is  well  for  you,  as  an  intelli- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  89 

gent  nurse,  to  know  before  going  to  her,  —  that  this 
illness  has  been  aggravated,  if  it  was  not  brought  on, 
by  mental  anxiety.  If  possible,  keep  your  patient 
from  raving,  or,  should  she  have  lucid  intervals,  from 
asking  questions.  If  she  will  talk,  promise  anything 
in  reason  —  or  out  of  it  —  that  will  pacify  her.  Say 
to  her,  should  she  intimate  a  desire  to  discuss  her 
anxieties  with  me,  that  I  have  promised  to  do  all  in 
my  power  to  bring  matters  out  right.  Ask  her  to 
trust  me  until  she  is  strong  enough  to  think  and  talk. 

"  Perhaps  "  —  seeming  to  gauge  the  moral  force  of 
the  listener  by  a  test  of  his  own  —  "  you  have  scruples 
against  deceiving  or  even  equivocating  to  a  delirious 
patient  ?  You  would  not  be  willing  to  do  even  so 
little  an  evil  that  a  great  good  might  be  brought 
about  ? " 

He  looked  so  kind,  with  all  his  seriousness,  that 
she  answered  frankly,— 

"  There  is  no  lie  —  ever  —  in  saying  that  everything 
will  come  out  right,  sir.  I  '11  do  my  best  for  the  poor 
lady,  and  may  the  dear  Lord  of  us  all  help  me !  " 

"  Amen  !  and  thank  you  !  " 

To  her  surprise,  —  for  she  had  set  him  down  at 
first  sight  as  "  a  genuine  high-stepper,  and  no  mis 
take,"  -  -  he  shook  hands  with  her  and  dismissed  her, 
saying  that  he  would  remain  in  the  house  until  after 
the  doctor's  next  visit. 

Elspeth  was  waiting,  according  to  instructions,  in 
the  upper  hall,  and  showed  the  nurse  to  a  chamber 
where  she  might  change  her  dress,  designating  the 
door  of  the  sick-room  as  they  passed  it,  and  telling 
her  to  come  in  when  she  was  ready. 


90  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  And  the  sooner  the  better ! "  she  subjoined. 

"  Why  do  you  say  that  ? "  demanded  accents,  the 
sharpness  of  which  contrasted  strangely  with  the 
youthful  quality  of  the  voice. 

A  pretty  girl,  with  golden  hair  put  back  carelessly 
from  her  face,  and  blue  eyes  too  weary  and  dry 
for  her  years,  met  them  upon  the  threshold  of  the 
hall  bedroom  to  which  Mrs.  Williams  had  been 
directed. 

"  I  did  not  go  upstairs  to  lie  down  as  you  told  me  to 
do,"  she  went  on  to  Elspeth,  noticing  the  new  arrival 
only  by  a  slight  and  haughty  inclination  of  the  head. 
"  I  would  not  go  out  of  hearing  of  my  mother.  I  am 
able  and  anxious  to  watch  with  her  to-night,  and  every 
night.  I  cannot  see  the  necessity,  as  you  and  Uncle 
Roger  do,  of  bringing  in  any  one  else  to  help  us.  I 
am  accountable  to  my  father  for  all  that  goes  on  here 
in  his  absence  —  remember !  Whatever  nurse  you 
engage  must  not  be  left  in  ignorance  as  to  who  is  the 
master  of  this  house." 

"  There  is  no  danger  of  that,  Miss  Marie, "  rejoined 
Elspeth,  with  no  show  of  temper. 

Mrs.  Williams  slipped  into  the  door,  and  the 
serving-woman  closed  it  upon  her.  Whatever  col 
loquy  followed  the  withdrawal  of  the  third  party 
to  the  little  scene  was  unhea.rd  by  her.  There  were, 
evidently,  other  complications  to  be  dealt  with  than 
pulmonary  in  the  new  case. 

Dr.  Bacon  found  her  in  full  charge  of  the  chamber 
of  illness  at  his  evening  visit. 

"  You  have  made  your  mark  already, "  he  told  her 
when,  after  ten  minutes  spent  at  the  bedside  of  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  91 

* 

patient,  the  nurse  obeyed  his  summons  to  follow 
him  into  the  adjoining  apartment. 

He  spoke  in  a  professional  undertone,  nodding 
backward  at  the  interior  visible  through  the  -half- 
open  door.  "  Got  all  ship-shape  in  there,  I  see. 
Close-reefed  and  ready  for  rough  weather.  There  's 
nothing  like  the  touch  a  professional  nurse  gives  to 
the  sick-room.  Where  's  the  daughter  ?  " 

"  Elspeth  coaxed  her  to  go  to  bed,  I  believe.  I 
only  saw  her  for  a  minute  when  I  first  came. " 

"  Good  I  I  had  my  fears  that  she  might  make  things 
a  little  more  lively  than  agreeable,  poor  thing!  She 
is  awfully  cut  up  by  her  mother's  illness,  and  has 
an  idea  that  everything  depends  upon  her  young 
shoulders  while  the  father  is  away.  Was  very  tart 
with  her  uncle  when  he  told  her  in  my  hearing  that 
we  must  have  you  in.  She  is  wonderfully  bright 
and  capable,  but,  delirious  as  the  mother  is,  the 
daughter's  worry  affected  her  unpleasantly.  There 
are  times,  as  you  and  I  know,  when  relatives  — 
especially  affectionate  and  anxious  relatives  —  are 
not  the  proper  people  to  be  about  a  sick  person. 
There  's  something  exciting  in  the  very  atmosphere 
under  such  circumstances.  Well !  what  do  you 
think  of  the  outlook  ?  " 

"  She  's  a  very  sick  woman.  And  I  mistrust  that 
she  's  been  ill  longer  than  people  know.  She  's 
likely  kept  up  when  she  ought  to  have  been  in  her 
bed.  Like  walking-typhoid,  you  know.  I  've  seen 
her  before.  For  a  half-hour  or  so,  I  could  n't  just 
think  where.  By-and-by  she  tried  to  sing,  —  a 
pretty  poor  try  it  was,  with  her  hoarse  voice  and 


92  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

* 

short  breath,  —  and  it  flashed  in  upon  me.  'T  was 
last  Friday  night  at  a  prayer-meeting  in  our  lecture- 
room,  —  the  Jeremy  Taylor,  you  know.  She  got  in 
late,  and  there  was  a  sort  of  queer  look  a,bout  her. 
I  was  right  across  the  aisle;  and  I  saw  presently 
that  her  color  had  all  gone  out,  the  same  as  the 
flame  of  a  candle,  and  she  turned  so  pale  and  her 
mouth  was  so  drawn  that,  being  as  I  am  a  nurse,  I 
could  n't  but  feel  that  't  was  right  to  keep  an  eye  on 
her  from  time  to  time.  I  was  afraid  she  was  going 
to  drop  in  a  faint. " 

"  So  you  watched  while  the  others  prayed  ? " 
unable  to  deny  himself  the  joke. 

"I  watched  between  the  prayers,  sir,"  answered 
the  nurse,  not  without  dignity.  "I  could  have  made 
sure  she  was  asleep  sometimes  if  her  hands  had  n't 
squeezed  one  another  hard,  and  her  face  twitched 
now  and  then.  So  I  was  fairly  taken  off  my  feet, 
as  you  may  say,  when  the  last  hymn  was  sung,  and 
she  joined  in  all  on  a  sudden  with  a  voice  like  an 
angel's,  —  a  strong  angel,  too.  Mrs.  Barnes,  she 
sings  most  delightful,  and  she  raised  the  tune,  — 
there  being  no  man  there  who  could  do  it,  —  and  was 
a-carrying  of  it  well ;  but  this  strange  lady  just  took 
it  away  from  her,  and  led  us  all  along  with  her,  so 
pitiful  and  so  earnest-like  that  I  could  n't  think  of 
anything  but  — '  I  will  not  let  thee  go,  until  thou 
bless  me ! '  The  words  were,  '  I  need  thee  every 
hour,'  and,  thinks  I  to  myself,  '  There's  one  that 
means  every  single  word  she  's  singing. '  It  gave 
me  quite  a  turn  when  she  started  up  the  same  tune 
awhile  ago." 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  93 

Dr.  Bacon  lent  an  attentive  ear. 

"  The  fever  was  upon  her  then ;  there  is  no  ques 
tion  of  that.  It  was  lucky  for  her  —  I  beg  your 
pardon,  it  was  providential — that  she  did-  riot 
wander  away  and  get  lost. 

"Well,  nurse!  we've  got  to  roll  up  our  sleeves 
and  fall  to  in  good  earnest,  if  we  are  to  pull  our 
patient  through.  Mind  and  body  are  both  against 
us,  I  suspect,  not  counting  in  the  author  and  for 
warder  and  general  backer  of  all  disease,  —  the  evil 
principle  you  call  the  devil." 

Thus  began,  over  the  prostrate  body  of  Alice  Paull, 
the  hand-to-hand  fight  that  lasted  without  respite 
for  ten  days  longer.  The  doctor  did  his  part  gal 
lantly;  Mr.  Lanier's  purse  and  time  were  at  his 
sister's  service ;  at  his  suggestion,  two  New  York 
medical  magnates,  whose  very  breath  might  be 
reckoned  as  currency,  so  costly  was  every  word, 
visited  the  patient  three  times  in  consultation  with 
the  physician  in  charge. 

Foremost  and  indefatigable,  the  nurse  fought  in 
the  breach.  She  seemed  to  live  without  sleep,  except 
for  the  two  hours  of  the  forenoon  when  the  sick 
woman  was  most  quiet,  and  Elspeth  insisted  on 
sitting  with  her.  In  all  that  week  and  a  half,  Mrs. 
Williams  did  not  leave  the  house;  never  lost  heart; 
never  raised  her  voice  above  its  accustomed  pitch, 
or  hurried  her  even  speech  by  so  much  as  a  quarter- 
breath.  That  hushed  upper  chamber  was  her  world ; 
and  within  it,  she  effaced  herself  so  far  as  considera 
tion  of  her  personal  ease  was  concerned.  The  one 
created  being  in  all  the  universe  for  her  lay  there, 


94  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

parched  by  fever,  moaning  in  delirious  agony,  the 
demon  in  possession  tugging  at  the  tense,  attenuated 
thread  of  her  existence. 

It  was  like  the  tossing  of  a  frail  boat  in  a  storm, 
each  pitch  and  wrench  grinding  the  cable  upon  the 
toothed  rocks  of  the  beach. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


Ask  God  to  give  thee  skill 

In  comfort's  art, 

That  thou  mayst  consecrated  be 

And  set  apart 

Unto  a  life  of  sympathy  ; 

For  heavy  is  the  weight  of  ill 

In  every  heart, 

And  comforters  are  needed  much, 

Of  Christ-like  touch. 

ANONYMOUS. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

"  \  T  7"HAT  has  become  of  the  picture  that  used  to 

V  V       hang  there  ?  " 

The  query,  faintly  but  coherently  uttered,  called 
the  nurse  to  the  bedside. 

Mrs.  Paull  had  slept  without  stirring  for  four 
hours.  It  was  a  season  of  suspense,  during  which 
nobody  but  Mrs.  Williams  was  in  the  room.  This 
was  by  the  doctor's  express  orders,  which  none  — 
assuredly  not  his  leal  coadjutor  —  thought  of 
gainsaying. 

The  house  was  as  silent  as  the  grave,  and,  although 
it  was  not  yet  noon,  shades  and  curtains  tempered 
the  light  to  the  dimness  of  evening.  The  woman 
in  the  chair  that  commanded  a  view  of  the  sleeper's 
face,  was  as  motionless  as  she  whom  she  watched. 
A  score  of  times  she  hushed  her  own  breath  to  listen 
for  that  which  was  the  only  token  of  life  in  her 
patient. 

One  of  her  sayings  was,  "  It 's  a  thousand  times 
easier,  no  matter  how  lazy  you  may  be,  to  be  up  and 
doing,  than  down  and  waiting." 

Long  practice  had  made  waiting  a  part  of  her 
religion.  She  had  learned,  through  much  tribula 
tion  and  many  lessons,  "having  done  all,  to  stand." 
When  God  said,  "  Be  still !  "  she  moved  not.  When 

7 


98  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

action  no  longer  availed,  she  gave  herself  unto 
prayer,  every  sense  on  the  alert  for  the  next  word  of 
command.  Resting  upon  her  arms  did  not  mean 
sleeping  upon  them. 

Her  practised  ear  detected  instantly  the  alteration 
in  Mrs.  PaulPs  voice  and  articulation.  The  languid 
legato  movement  of  the  words  was  that  of  feeble 
but  intelligent  speech.  Her  heart  gave  a  great 
bound,  the  hurrying  blood  beat  upon  the  drums  of 
her  ears,  but,  without  rustle  or  flurry,  she  arose  and 
moved  slowly  forward.  Mrs.  Paull  was  gazing  at 
a  vacant  place  upon  the  wall  over  against  her  bed. 

"We  took  it  away  because  you  were  'ill,  Mrs. 
Paull.  The  less  furniture  there  is  in  a  sick-room 
the  better,  or  so  the  doctors  say  nowadays. " 

Too  weak  to  be  greatly  moved  by  surprise  or  curi 
osity,  the  patient  turned  her  eyes  to  the  unfamiliar 

face. 

"  I  must  have  had  an  unusually  bad  headache,  have 
I  not?  It  has  taken  all  my  strength,  I  think. 
Where  is  Elspeth  ?  And  why  has  she  left  you  to 
take  care  of  me  ?  " 

"  Elspeth 's  busy,  getting  the  children's  dinner 
ready,  I  guess.  Shall  I  call  her  ?  " 

"Not  if  she  is  busy.  She  has  too  much  to  do 
when  I  am  unable  to  help  her.  But  I  am  afraid 
this  is  an  imposition  upon  you  - 

"Not  a  bit  of  it.  I  'm  Mrs.  Williams,  one  of  your 
neighbors ;  and  seeing  that  Elspeth  did  n't  like  to 
leave  you  alone,  I  offered  to  sit  with  you  awhile, 
in  case  you  might  want  a  drink,  or  anything.  The 
doctor  was  here  to-day,  and  left  this  for  you  to  take 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  99 

when  you  woke  up.     You  '11  do  nicely  now  that  the 
headache  has  gone  off. " 

She  spoke  in  such  an  easy,  matter-of-course  way, 
and  her  manner  of  offering  the  medicine  was  so  free 
from  concern,  that  Mrs.  Paull  swallowed  it  without 
remark  upon  the  physician's  visit,  or  his  prescrip 
tion.  She  closed  her  eyes,  and  dozed  for  twenty 
minutes  under  the  influence  of  the  sedative;  then 
they  opened,  and  the  perplexities  dreaded  by  doctors 
and  watchers  under  such  circumstances  crept  darkly 
into  their  depths.  She  was  beginning  to  piece 
together  straggling  thoughts,  and  to  call  memory  to 
her  help. 

"  Where  are  the  children  ?  " 

"Gone  to  school  as  good  as  kittens,  bless  their 
hearts!  That  is,  the  boys  have.  The  baby  was 
carried  off  by  Mrs.  Lanier,  who  wanted  her  to  spend 
the  day  with  her  little  girl.  I  heard  something  about 
Central  Park,  so  I  think  there  is  a  frolic  on  foot. " 

"  Has  anybody  been  ill  except  myself  ?  " 

"Nobody  at  all.  Why  should  they  be?  Head 
aches  —  even  such  bad  ones  as  yours  —  are  not 
catching.  And  you  must  n't  think  of  yourself  as  ill 
now.  You  're  a  bit  tired  and  weak,  and  must  lie 
still  and  eat  all  the  nourishing  food  the  doctor  will 
let  you  have,  and  take  all  the  rest  the  law  allows. 
You  '11  be  astonished  to  find  how  soon  you  '11  be 
up  and  around. " 

The  homely  commonplaces  and  the  smooth,  lei 
surely  enunciation  of  them  lulled  the  listener  tem 
porarily.  It  seemed  altogether  proper  that  this 
comfortable-looking  stranger  should  be  there  and  her 


100  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

custodian  while  Elspeth  bustled  about  downstairs. 
The  blackened  lips  relaxed  into  something  like  a 
smile. 

"  You  are  very  kind.      I  am  much  obliged  to  you. " 

The  drowsy  intonation  promised  well,  but,  as 
before,  her  mind  rebelled  against  the  inertia  of  the 
body.  Her  brows  were  knitted;  the  lids  contracted 
like  those  of  a  short-sighted  person.  The  next 
query  showed  that  recollections  were  tardy  in  adjust 
ing  themselves. 

"Have  any  letters  come  from  Mr.  Paull  while  I 
was  ill  ?  " 

"  I  have  n't  heard  them  say.  'T  was  n't  likely  I 
should,  being  a  comparative  stranger,  although  a 
neighbor  and  a  well-wisher,  as  all  neighbors  ought 
to  be,  according  to  my  way  of  thinking.  And 
Mendebras  Avenue  has  the  name  of  being  real 
sociable,  especially  when  there  's  sickness  or  the 
like.  But  there !  I  always  say  there  is  n't  a  truer 
word  in  the  Bible  than  that  '  a  man  that  hath 
friends  must  show  himself  friendly. ' ' 

She  had  reduced  the  knack  of  talking  her  patients 
to  sleep  to  an  art.  But  the  pleasant  monotone, 
almost  lengthening  into  a  drawl,  the  non-exciting 
utterances  strung  upon  a  silken  string  and  slipped 
along  at  equal  distances,  failed  now  of  their  usual 
effect. 

"  Do  you  know  whether  or  not  my  brother  ordered 
that  picture  to  be  taken  down  ?  " 

The  nurse  laughed,  a  good-humored  gurgle  of 
innocent  amusement  that  made  her  incipient  double 
chin  quiver. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  101 

"I  know  for  certain  that  he  did  n't!  He  does  n't 
even  know  that  it  is  down.  There  never  was  a 
kinder,  lovinger,  attentiver  brother  in  all  the  world ; 
that  I  '11  testify  to.  He  's  been  over  every  day,  so 
they  tell  me,  to  see  how  you  are,  and  if  there  's  any 
thing  you  'd  like  to  have,  and  all  that.  A  great  many 
men  have  n't  but  one  idea  in  the  world  about  sick 
people,  and  that's,  'What '11  they  have  to  eat?' 
And  he  'd  give  you  all  of  Washin'ton  Market,  and 
Fulton  thrown  into  the  bargain,  if  your  room  would 
hold  it,  and  Elspeth  would  let  you  have  'em.  But 
he  'd  no  more  to  do  with  taking  down  that  picture 
than  the  king  o'  the  Canary  Islands,  wheresomever 
they  may  be.  'T  was  Elspeth  and  me  that  were  all 
the  time  brushing  up  against  the  frame,  and  shoul 
dering  of  it  crooked,  being  neither  of  us  willows,  so 
to  speak,  —  no,  nor  yet  syllups.  Soon  's  you  get 
strong  enough  to  set  up,  you  shall  have  it  back. 
It 's  only  in  the  other  room,  —  safe  's  can  be." 

She  contrived  to  give  this  monologue  the  effect  of 
dropping  water,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing 
Mrs.  Paull's  eyelids  fall  slowly  and  remain  closed ; 
the  plait  between  the  brows  was  smoothed  out. 
Another  half-hour  went  by.  Mrs.  Williams  was 
immovable,  —  a  study  of  charity  in  gray  stone,  after 
the  realistic  school,  abundant  in  curves,  and  wise 
with  the  tender  sagacity  of  years.  Before  she  dared 
change  her  position,  the  eyes,  misty  with  sleep, 
opened  a  little  way. 

"Ernest  wouldn't  like  it,  I  am  sure,"  she  mur 
mured.  "He  gave  it  to  me  one  Christmas;  ten 
years  ago,  maybe  twelve.  He  hung  it  there,  where 


102  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

I  could  see  it  the  first  thing  in  the  morning.     He 
said  it  would  be  —  the  spirit  of  love  —  keeping  — 
watch  —  over  —  me. " 

The  last  syllables  were  barely  audible.  The 
watcher  did  not  move  until  the  soft  respiration 
assured  her  that  slumber  had  again  interposed  a  mer 
ciful  screen  between  the  spent  nervous  forces  and 
the  glare  of  truth. 

With  all  her  natural  aptitude  for  her  calling,  her 
tact,  and  her  skill,  she  was  not  a  trained  nurse. 
That  is,  she  had  not  been  graduated  from  a  "  Train 
ing  School,"  with  a  diploma  that  gave  her  the  right 
to  wear  kerchief  and  coif;  to  snub  "unprofessional," 
and  awe  the  families  of  patients.  She  was  stout  in 
her  objections  to  the  uniform  of  the  order,  maintain 
ing  that  the  apparition  of  a  hired  nurse  to  the  vision 
of  an  ill  and  nervous  person  was  in  itself  alarming. 
She  would  rather  be  taken  for  what  she  accounted 
herself  to  be  —  the  volunteer  neighbor  of  the  suf 
ferer  —  until  the  feeling  of  strangerhood  wore  off. 

Without  going  to  the  length  of  equivocating  to 
Mrs.  Paull,  she  had  succeeded  in  evading  her  cate 
chism  as  to  the  causes  for  removing  the  portrait. 
It  was  literally  true  that  she  and  Elspeth,  in  tend 
ing  the  sick  mistress  and  making  the  bed,  had  once 
and  again  come  in  contact  with  the  corners  of  the 
elaborately  carved  and  gilded  frame,  and  that  both 
had  exclaimed  at  the  discomfort  of  having  it  there. 
But,  on  the  eleventh  day  of  her  illness,  Mrs.  Paull 
had  conceived  a  sudden  and  violent  dread  of  the 
handsome  visage  smiling  down  upon  her.  She  hid 
herself  shudderingly  under  the  bed-clothes,  declaring 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  103 

that  the  eyes  hurt  her,  that  the  lips  said  cruel,  mock 
ing  things;  and,  worst  of  all,  that  the  face  of  a 
woman  sneered  at  her  over  her  husband's  shoulder. 
Nor  would  she  uncover  her  eyes  until  assured  by 
servant  and  nurse  that  the  picture  was  no  longer 
there. 

Marie  had  witnessed  all  this  with  a  horror-stricken 
countenance,  and  followed  Mrs.  Williams  as  she 
carried  the  portrait  into  the  back  chamber.  When 
it  was  deposited  carefully  upon  a  table,  the  back 
propped  by  the  wall,  the  girl  threw  herself  upon  her 
knees  in  front  of  it,  kissed  the  pictured  face  over  and 
over,  and  laid  her  cheek  against  it,  the  tears  raining 
from  her  eyes. 

"  Poor,  dear  papa !  It  would  break  his  heart  if  he 
knew  of  this.  Oh,  Mrs.  Williams,  what  does  it  all 
mean  ?  Did  you  hear  her  say  that  he  was  trying  to 
drag  her  heart  out  by  the  roots  ?  He,  —  the  gentlest, 
kindest,  most  affectionate  of  human  beings,  who 
could  never  bear  to  see  anything  suffer !  " 

"  It 's  oftener  this  way  than  otherwise,  dear, 
when  people's  wits  have  been  sent  away  by  fever  or 
anything  of  that  sort.  It 's  a  very  common  thing  for 
them  to  turn  against  the  very  ones  they  love  the  best. 
Wait  until  your  mother  is  herself  again,  and  you  '11 
see  that  she  '11  be  the  first  one  to  insist  upon  our 
bringing  the  portrait  back.  She  will  not  have  the 
least  recollection  of  what  has  happened  to-day,  and 
we  must  take  care  that  she  never  knows  it.  It  would 
grieve  her  more  than  it  does  you." 

The  demeanor  of  the  patient  upon  her  return  to 
consciousness  fully  justified  this  prediction,  but  to 


104  THE  ROYAL    ROAD. 

the  nurse's  surprise,  she  made  no  further  reference 
to  the  portrait  upon  her  second  awakening.  Her 
eyes  wandered  over  the  blank  space  it  had  once  filled 
as  listlessly  as  over  other  parts  of  the  room. 

To  Mrs.  Williams's  proposal  to  Elspeth  that  they 
would  better  restore  it  to  its  place,  the  Scotchwoman 
replied  curtly,  "  Bide  a  wee !  When  she  asks  for  it 
again,  it  wull  be  time  eno'  to  fetch  it. " 

That  time  did  not  come.  Mrs.  Paull  asked  for  her 
children,  smiled  faintly  into  their  awed  faces,  let 
them  kiss  her,  and  hoped,  in  the  changed  voice  that 
frightened  them  into  decorum,  that  they  would  be 
"good,  and  not  give  Elspeth  too  much  trouble,"  — 
then  wearily  turned  away  and  seemed  to  sleep.  She 
was  composed  in  appearance  when  her  brother  was 
admitted,  and  calmly  affectionate  with  her  sister-in- 
law,  thanking  both  for  their  kindness  to  the  children 
and  herself,  but  evidently  indisposed  to  converse 
upon  any  subject  whatsoever.  The  dull  apathy  that 
had  taken  the  place  of  her  natural  vivacity  increased 
as  time  passed,  instead  of  wearing  away  with  the 
increase  of  strength.  When  left  alone  with  the 
nurse,  she  would  lie  for  hours  together,  staring  at 
the  ceiling,  her  wasted  hands  laid,  one  upon  the 
other,  over  her  breast,  never  speaking  unless  directly 
questioned,  and  answering  in  the  fewest  possible 
words.  But  for  the  settled  gloom  of  the  dark  eyes, 
she  might  have  been  thought  to  be  in  a  trance. 

Finding  and  leaving  her  thus  one  afternoon,  Mr. 
Lanier  signalled  to  Mrs.  Williams  to  accompany  him 
when  he  went  downstairs. 

"This  is   an   unnatural,   and   to  me  an  alarming 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  105 

state  of  things, "  he  said,  in  strong  emotion.  "  Surely 
something  can  and  ought  to  be  done  to  break  it  up. 
Will  you  ask  Dr.  Bacon  if  he  would  like  to  have 
Dr.  Jaynes  or  Dr.  Steele  over  again  ?  What  does 
he  think  of  her  ?  What  would  you  suggest  ?  " 

She  answered  the  last  question  first,  —  a  safe  rule 
when  the  dialogue  lies  between  a  calm  person  and 
one  who  is  laboring  under  powerful  excitement. 

"I  have  seen  other  cases,  and  worse,  that  came 
out  straight  in  time.  There  's  nothing  to  be  done 
but  to  wait  patiently  for  what  good  nursing  and 
tonics  will  do.  So  Dr.  Bacon  says,  and  the  other 
doctors  would  agree  with  him.  High-ups  must  be 
followed  by  low-downs,  you  see,  before  one  gets  to  a 
healthy  everidge.  Mrs.  Paull  has  a  fine  constitution, 
and  then  she  has  her  children  to  get  well  for.  It 's 
a  good  sign,  —  her  noticing  them. " 

"That  is  the  doctor's  opinion,  you  say.  Do  you 
think  as  he  does  ?  I  would  rather  have  the  judg 
ment  of  a  really  competent  nurse  than  that  of  a 
whole  college  of  physicians.  You  have  watched 
Mrs.  Paull  closely  now  for  nearly  three  weeks. 
Has  anything  occurred  to  you  as  likely  to  be  helpful 
to  her  ?  If  she  goes  on  as  she  is  now  for  a  week 
longer,  she  will  die,  or  become  insane. " 

"  Shall  I  speak  out  plain,  sir  ?  You  'd  maybe 
think  me  too  free. " 

"  I  have  asked  you  to  speak,  have  n't  I  ?  Excuse 
me  if  I  seem  irritable,  but  I  am  greatly  worried  by 
all  this,  —  more  than  you  or  any  one  else  can  im 
agine.  I  am  tormented  by  the  dread  that  my  sister 
may  never  rally.  I  see  no  signs  of  convalescence 


106  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

other  than  were  perceptible  a  week  ago,  and  — " 
falteringly  —  "  we  have  been  much  to  each  other,  — 
Alice  and  I.  Next  to  my  wife  and  children,  she  is 
the  dearest  thing  alive  to  me. " 

The  honest  face  before  him  expressed  sincere  and 
respectful  sympathy.  His  soul  must  have  been 
moved  to  the  depths  before  he  could  admit  a  stranger 
to  his  confidence.  She  spoke  simply  and  gravely,  — 

"  I  think,  Mr.  Lanier,  if  I  may  be  so  bold,  that  a 
letter  or  a  message  from  her  husband  would  do  Mrs. 
Paull  more  good  than  all  the  medicine  in  the  drug 
stores  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn  mixed  in  one 
tonic.  There  's  a  spring  broken  or  a  band  slipped 
off  the  wheel  somewhere,  that  doctors  and  nurses 
have  n't  touched,  and  can't  touch.  If  Mr.  Paull 
could  arrange  his  business  matters  so  as  to  hurry 
home,  or  if  he  would  write  oftener,  —  some  men 
are  thoughtless  about  such  things,  —  you  'd  soon 
see  a  blessed  change  in  her." 

Something  so  hot  and  bitter  burst  from  the  lips  of 
the  stately  gentleman  that  she  actually  recoiled.  It 
sounded  like  "  Despicable  hound  !  "  but  she  could  not 
be  sure  as  to  the  wording  of  the  epithet,  gathering 
the  purport  more  from  his  emphasis  and  countenance. 
He  walked  up  and  down  the  parlors,  went  into  the 
hall,  opened  the  front  door,  and  stood  bareheaded 
in  the  frosty  air  for  perhaps  two  minutes.  Then  he 
came  back. 

"  Again  I  must  beg  you  to  excuse  me  if  I  appear 
unreasonably  irritable.  There  are  some  things  which 
it  is  difficult  to  discuss  with  anybody.  Family 
secrets  ought  not  to  be  shared  with  any  one  except 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  107 

blood  relations.  And,  as  a  family,  we  are  disposed 
to  be  reserved ;  perhaps  we  are  proud.  If  so,  pride 
is  likely  to  catch  a  hard  fall." 

He  had  said  this  pacing  the  room  restlessly.  •  Now 
he  stopped,  facing  her. 

"  You  are  a  widow,  I  believe,  Mrs.  Williams  ?  " 

"No,  sir.     That  is,  not  by  death." 

The  response  was  so  direct  and  unlooked-for  that 
he  was  abashed.  Her  mournful  firmness  had  a 
touch  of  the  heroic.  He  felt  convicted  of  wanton 
cruelty. 

"  I  beg  a  thousand  pardons.     I  had  supposed  - 

"  Most  people  do,  sir !  "  interposing  to  save  him 
further  embarrassment.  "When  asked  direct,  I 
can  say  but  the  one  thing,  of  course.  But,  as  you 
say,  there  are  sore  spots  in  every  family  and  every 
heart  that  it 's  best  to  keep  well  covered  up.  Now, 
sir,  as  to  Mrs.  Paull,  —  if  there  's  anything  you  can 
think  of  that  I  can  do  to  help  her  —  " 

He  came  to  an  abrupt  determination. 

"  You  are  a  Christian,  Mrs.  Williams,  and  a  brave, 
God-fearing,  tender-hearted  woman,  with  great  re 
finement  of  feeling.  You  are  prudent,  too,  and,  I 
believe,  discreet  beyond  the  average  of  your  sex. " 

Excited  as  he  was,  he  could  not  but  note  that  she 
listened  as  if  he  were  praising  somebody  else  than 
herself. 

"I  will  be  frank  with  you  throughout  our  discus 
sion  of  this  miserable  business,"  continued  Mr. 
Lanier.  "Mr.  Paull  will  never  come  back  to  his 
home,  and  my  sister  knows  it.  He  has  disgraced 
his  children  with  himself,  and  deserted  a  faithful, 


108  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

devoted  wife.  I  brought  this  news  to  her  on  the  day 
she  was  taken  ill.  What  has  happened  since  then 
is  in  consequence  of  what  I  was  obliged  to  tell  her. 
You  know  the  whole  story  now.  You  see  what  you 
meant,  without  comprehending  why  it  was,  when  you 
talked  of  broken  springs  and  ungeared  wheels. " 

She  had  borne  herself  thus  far  with  such  equa 
nimity,  and  she  looked  so  strong  and  steady,  that  he 
was  utterly  unprepared  to  see  her  sit  down  as  if  her 
knees  had  given  way,  and  lifting  her  apron  to  her 
eyes  begin  to  sob  hysterically. 

"  The  poor  dear !  the  poor  suffering  dear !  Oh,  Mr. 
Lanier !  how  can  any  man  be  so  cruel  ?  God  forgive 
him  for  bringing  such  sorrow  upon  her  and  her 
innocent  babies ! " 

Roger  Lanier  did  not  say  "  Amen !  "  to  that.  His 
face  hardened,  not  relented,  at  the  prayer.  His  eyes 
were  sternly  unmerciful. 

The  nurse  got  hold  of  herself  almost  immediately. 

"It  isn't  often  I  give  way  like  that,  sir,"  she 
pleaded,  in  her  quaintly  respectful  way.  "  But  I  've 
had  a  pretty  hard  strain  lately,  you  know,  and  this 
caught  me  by  surprise.  I  'm  obliged  to  you  for  tell- 
ing  me  the  truth,  and  proud  and  thankful  that  you 
feel  to  trust  me  to  hold  my  tongue.  What  you  've 
said  makes  me  a  grain  less  hopeful.  I  won't  deny 
that.  But  it  will  move  me  to  great  boldness  in 
carrying  the  dear  lady  and  her  grief  to  the  Great 
Physician,  now  that  I  really  understand  how  much 
she  needs  Him.  There  's  nothing  impossible  with 
Him,  Mr.  Lanier,  and  He  is  very  pitiful  and  of 
great  mercy  to  His  children.  Our  extremity  is 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  109 

His  best  opportunity.     That  's  a  blessed  saying,  - 
'most  good  enough  to  be  in  the  Bible  itself." 

Elspeth,  supposing  her  mistress  to  be  asleep,  had 
slipped  away  to  attend  to  her  domestic  duties^  leav 
ing  the  chamber-door  ajar.  Mrs.  Williams  entered 
soundlessly,  cast  a  glance  at  the  bed,  and  seeing  the 
occupant  quiet,  took  a  seat  out  of  range  should  she 
stir,  and  buried  her  face  in  her  hands. 

This  woman,  to  whom  she  had  been  sent  to  min 
ister,  high-born  and  delicately  nurtured,  carried  a 
cross  of  like  form  and  weight  with  hers.  With 
home  and  kindred  and  wealth  at  her  call,  she  had 
been  swept  out  to  sea  by  waves  as  rough  as  those 
that  had  overwhelmed  herself  years  ago ;  had  fallen, 
fainting  with  thirst,  beside  the  fountain  of  Marah. 
Widely  separated  as  the  two  might  be  by  education 
and  social  position,  they  were  sisters  in  the  sorest 
sorrow  that  can  visit  a  woman's  heart. 

God  must  have  meant  much  in  directing  her  feet  to 
this  house.  His  ways  were  always  wise,  and  always 
full  of  meaning  to  those  who  cared  to  study  them. 
He  did  nothing  idly,  and  He  made  no  mistakes. 

She  whispered  under  her  breath  one  of  the  prov 
erbs,  of  which  she  had  an  exhaustless  store,  — 

"  Whoso  will  observe  the  wonderful  providences  of 
God,  shall  have  wonderful  providences  to  observe. " 

She  must  move  warily,  for  life  and  death  might 
hang  upon  her  efforts  to  pour  balm  into  that  wounded 
heart,  and  to  raise  the  fallen  spirit.  In  all  the  nar 
row  and  critical  passes  through  which  she  had  been 
mercifully  guided,  she  had  known  few  more  perplex 
ing  than  this. 


HO  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  And,  like  a  blind,  conceited  bat,  I  had  it  in  my 
mind  to  hang  up  that  picture  to-night,  after  she  was 
sound  asleep,  that  her  eyes  might  light  on  it  the  first 
thing  in  the  morning,  as  she  said  her  husband  meant 
they  should  when  he  gave  it  to  her.  I  was  that 
pleased  with  the  idea  of  giving  her  something  pleasant 
to  think  of,  that  I  could  hardly  wait  for  night  to 
come.  What  risky  things  we  short-sighted  creatures 
are  let  to  do,  when  we  get  to  priding  ourselves  upon 
our  own  smartness !  I.  do  declare,  I  've  no  respect 
for  Mary  Williams,  if  she  does  set  herself  up  as  a 
'nurse,  etc.,'  when  I  catch  her  in  such  conceited 
ways.  Talk  of  the  mercies  of  the  Lord  being  from 
everlasting  to  everlasting!  They  ain't  a  circum 
stance  compared  with  His  patience  with  our  foolish 
ness  !  That 's  just  everlastingest. " 

A  restless  movement  upon  the  bed  called  her  to 
her  feet.  The  gas  was  low,  and  she  raised  it  to  a 
cheerful  flame,  on  perceiving  through  the  obscurity 
that  Mrs.  Paull  was  looking  about  her. 

"You  've  had  a  good  sleep,  ma'am ! "  cheerily  con 
gratulatory.  "In  my  humble  opinion,  there's  no 
better  time  o'  the  day  for  dozing  than  twilight. 
Seems  if  't  was  made  a-purpose  for  us  to  catch  our 
breath  in  after  the  day's  work  is  done,  and  before 
'the  evening  shades  prevail,'  as  the  hymn  says. 
Do  you  feel  equal  to  sitting  up  in  bed  while  you  eat 
your  supper  ?  " 

"If  1  must  eat  it,"  said  the  listless  voice, 
"wouldn't  it  be  less  trouble  to  take  it  as  I  am? 
Less  fatiguing  for  you  and  for  me  ?  " 

"  Oh,  as  to  me,  no  way  you  could  contrive  would 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  Ill 

fatigue  my  tough  bones  and  sinews.  But  I  think 
appetite  comes  easier  when  one  is  n't  flat  on  her 
back,  as  if  't  was  n't  intended  that  human  creatures 
should  eat  in  that  shiftless,  lazy  way.  And,  come 
to  think  of  it,"  —  with  her  jolly  little  gurgle,  —  "  I 
don't  know  of  any  animal  that  prefers  to  take  his 
victuals  in  that  position,  without  't  is  a  shark.  They 
do  say  he  has  to  turn  over  on  his  back  before  he  can 
catch  holt  of  his  prey,  and  that  many  a  swimmer 
has  been  saved  on  account  of  his  being  made  that 
way. 

"There  now!  Is  that  comfortable?  Don't  say 
'yes,'  without  it  is  entirely  right.  It  will  amuse 
me  to  keep  on  trying  till  I  get  them  so  as  to  suit 
you.  There  's  as  many  ways  of  fixing  pillows  as 
there  are  people  to  lie  upon  them.  They  ought  to 
fit  into  all  the  tired  hollows,  and  support  every  bone, 
and  give  into  every  joint,  or  they  are  not  just  as  they 
ought  to  be. " 

"They  are  very  comfortable,  thank  you."  Mrs. 
Paull  lay  back,  with  a  sigh,  in  the  downy  nest  ar 
ranged  by  the  deft  hands.  "  What  time  is  it  ?  " 

"I  heard  the  whistles  blow  for  six  a  few  minutes 
ago.  I  thought  maybe  that  was  what  woke  you. " 

"Only  six!  I  thought  it  much  later.  The  night 
is  all  to  come. " 

"Time  will  go  twice  as  fast  when  once  you  're  up 
and  dressed,"  said  the  nurse,  blithely,  over  her  shoul 
der,  in  going  into  the  adjoining  room. 


CHAPTER    VII. 


Be  sure  that  if  you  do  your  very  best  in  that  which 
is  laid  upon  you  daily,  you  will  uot  be  left  without 
sufficient  help  when  some  mightier  occasion  arises. 

J.  N.  GROU. 

Why  should  I  start  at  the  plough  of  my  Lord,  that 
maketh  deep  furrows  on  my  soul  ?  I  know  He  is  no 
idle  husbandman.  He  purposeth  a  crop. 

SAMUEL  RUTHERFORD. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

UPON  a  table  in  the  room  that  had  been  the 
guest-chamber  of  the  house,  Mrs.  Williams 
had  arranged  medicines,  glasses,  spirit-lamp,  and 
kettle,  and  other  appliances  of  her  profession,  and 
the  specific  work  she  had  on  hand.  She  never 
dropped  or  measured  or  mixed  a  dose  in  the 
patient's  sight  or  hearing,  or  arranged  a  tray,  or  cut 
up  food  in  her  presence.  Aladdin's  slaves  were  not 
better  drilled  in  making  an  appearance  all  ready  for 
waiting  or  action,  in  the  precise  nick  of  time,  than 
the  born  New  Englander,  who  had  not  known  the 
discipline  of  regulation  "training." 

To  protect  the  polished  top  of  the  table  from  stain 
or  hot  liquid,  she  had  covered  it  with  a  folded  news 
paper,  and  this  with  a  napkin.  The  latter  was 
spotted  in  several  places,  she  noticed  now,  and 
having  administered  Mrs.  PaulPs  tonic  and  lighted 
the  lamp  under  the  vessel  containing  beef-tea,  the 
neat-handed  attendant  took  the  moment  of  leisure  for 
removing  the  soiled,  and  spreading  in  its  place  clean 
linen.  A  like  instinct  of  orderliness  caused  her  to 
reverse  the  newspaper.  It  was  a  secular  sheet  of 
manifold  pages,  and  a  Sunday  issue.  Accordingly 
two  columns  of  the  least  conspicuous  page  were 
devoted  to  religious  intelligence  and  moral  selec- 


116  THE    ROYAL   ROAD. 

tions.  Right  in  the  middle  of  one  of  these  columns 
was  an  extract  headed  G-ood  Advice. 

"  If  I  don't  need  that  at  this  identical  minute,  — 
good  measure,  shaken  down,  pressed  together  and 
a-running  over,  —  nobody  does  !  "  reflected  the  nurse, 
and,  forthwith  and  then  and  there,  proceeded  to  make 
it  her  own,  standing  under  the  gas-burner,  one  eye  and 
both  ears  attent  upon  the  warming  beef-tea. 

Having  gone  through  it  twice,  she  picked  up  a 
pair  of  scissors,  cut  out  the  paragraph,  and  tucked 
it  for  future  reference  into  her  Bible,  that  lay  on  the 
mantel. 

"  If  that  ain't  a  '  find  ' !  "  she  ejaculated  softly. 

The  contents  of  the  sauce-pan  were  simmering. 
With  a  look  of  unwonted  abstraction,  she  poured 
the  liquid  into  a  cup,  put  with  it  upon  a  tray  a  strip 
of  toast,  and  took  it  into  the  other  room.  When  she 
brought  back  the  cup  and  plate,  she  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  to  read  the  "  find  "  over  again. 

Acquire  the  habit  of  living  by  the  minute.  Take  care 
of  this  moment  now  while  you  have  it,  the  next  when 
it  comes,  and  you  will  not  then  neglect  any.  You  can 
live  this  minute  without  sin.  Is  it  not  so  ?  Do  it,  then. 
Never  mind  what  is  before  you.  Do  not  sin  now.  When 
each  successive  minute  comes,  do  likewise.  If  you  will 
do  this,  — if  you  will  observe  this  simple  rule,  —  you  will 
not  fail,  you  will  not  sin  at  all.  Days  are  made  up  of 
minutes ;  if  each  one  is  sinless,  the  day  will  be  so. 
Now  try  this.  Nothing  is  easier,  nothing  is  wiser. 
Live  by  the  minute.  Carry  on  your  business,  trade, 
labor,  study,  and  plan  for  the  future  by  the  minute. 
Trust  in  God  now ;  do  God's  will  now  j  do  not  offend 
God  now.  —  Bishop  Foster. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  117 

"  Would  n't  that  go  straight  to  Mr.  Stevens's 
heart?"  she  said,  inly,  to  her  edified  self.  "I'll 
send  it  to  Mrs.  Barnes,  and  when  she  's  got  her  share 
of  honey  out  of  it,  I  '11  mail  it  to  him.  I  wonder 
if  Bishop  Foster  is  alive  or  dead  ?  I  'd  go  far  to 
thank  him  for  this  brook  by  the  way.  It's  made 
me  lift  up  my  head  —  and  my  heart.  There  's 
another  of  the  blessed  ones,  whose  feet  are  set  in  the 
Royal  Road.  Pretty  soon  they  will  be  a  great  mul 
titude  that  no  man  can  number.  To  come  upon  this 
right  in  the  heart  of  one  of  them  Sunday  papers,  is 
like  finding  a  pearl  in  a  stale  oyster.  It 's  a  lesson 
in  charity,  too,  if  I  take  it  in  the  right  way.  There  's 
some  good  in  everything,  and  after  this  I  '11  never 
say  that  the  Sunday  paper  may  n't  be  the  means  of 
saving  a  soul. 

"  The  question  for  this  one  of  my  minutes  is  why 
I  was  led  to  light  upon  this  at  this  particular  time, 
when  my  whole  soul  is  going  out  in  prayer,  and 
longing  to  hit  upon  some  way  of  comforting  her. 
Nothing  happens  by  chance.  Mr.  Stevens  says  the 
day  is  as  full  of  guide-posts  to  duty  as  a  paling  fence 
is  of  pickets.  Is  this  one  of  them  ?  " 

She  took  the  cutting  into  the  front  chamber  with 
her,  holding  it  in  her  left  hand,  while  the  right 
brushed  a  minute  crumb  from  the  counterpane. 

In  her  eyes,  and  lingering  about  the  corners  of  her 
mouth,  was  a  happy  smile. 

Mrs.  Paull's  languid  regards  passed  from  the 
printed  slip  to  her  attendant's  face;  and  an  instinct 
of  politeness,  rather  than  curiosity,  prompted  a 
question,  — 


118  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"Is  that  something  that  you  would  like  me  to 
see  ? " 

"I  suppose  you  wonder  why  I  am  carrying  it  about 
with  me,  like  the  woman  in  the  Bible,  with  the 
piece  of  silver  she  found  by  lighting  the  candle  and 
sweeping  out  the  corners,"  she  said,  the  happy  laugh 
mellowing  yet  more  the  voice  already  so  soothing  to 
the  ear.  "I  made  up  my  mind,  a  great  while  ago, 
that  the  pleasantness  and  misery  of  this  world  are 
made  up  of  many  littles,  and  that  those  are  the  best 
off  who  make  much  of  the  day  and  hour  of  small 
things.  We  all  know  that  whatever  God  sends  has 
a  meaning,  and  will  accomplish  that  whereunto  it  is 
sent;  and  that  if  we  keep  our  eyes  and  ears  open 
all  the  time,  we  may  come  to  see  a  great  deal  more 
of  what  He  does  mean  than  we  're  apt  to  believe,  if 
we  have  n't  tried  that  plan  of  living.  We  've  fallen 
so  much  into  the  habit  of  saying,  '  What  He  does 
we  can't  know  here,  but  we  shall  know  Hereafter,' 
that  most  of  us  think  it  is  a  religious  duty  to  wait 
for  everything  until  that  Hereafter." 

"  But  those  were  Christ's  own  words. " 

A  tiny  ray  of  satisfaction  kindled  at  the  back  of 
the  nurse's  eyes. 

"  If  I  can  once  arouse  her  to  argue  with  me,  it 
will  be  a  sign  she  's  waking  up !  "  she  thought. 

"Yes;  but  He  said  them  to  Peter,  and  about  an 
altogether  different  matter,  reproving  the  poor  rash 
fellow  for  over-inquisitiveness.  He  blames  nobody 
for  considering  His  ways,  and  being  guided  by  them. 
Now,  it  seems  to  me,  and  I  'm  sure  the  Bible  backs 
me  up  in  it,  —  not  in  so  many  words,  of  course,  but 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  119 

in  the  spirit  of  it,  —  't  seems  to  me  that  that  way 
of  taking  life  is  a  good  deal  like  a  cake  with  all 
the  fruit  settled  at  the  bottom.  'T  ain't  nice,  nor  yet 
wholesome.  It 's  better  cooking  and  better  religion 
to  flour  the  raisins  and  citron  and  currants,  and 
mix  'em  well  through  the  batter,  so  they  won't  sink 
into  one  heavy  streak. " 

Her  prattle  was  so  ingenuous  in  style,  and  so 
brightly  delivered,  that  her  auditor  was  beguiled  into 
the  reality  of  listening.  For  the  first  time  Mrs. 
Williams  saw  the  perfect  teeth  gleam  in  a  sponta 
neous  smile. 

"  And  is  that  "  -  looking  at  the  cutting  —  "a  new 
recipe  for  insuring  success  in  fruit-cake  making  ?  " 

Nurse  Williams  laughed  outright. 

"  You  've  no  idea  what  a  clever  guess  you  've  made, 
ma'am !  If  it  would  n't  bore  you  to  hear  me  read  it, 
you  'd  be  ready  to  laugh  yourself,  to  see  how  exactly 
you  've  hit  it.  I  '11  hang  this  banner-screen  on  the 
gas-burner  to  keep  the  light  from  your  eyes  before 
I  begin." 

While  making  arrangements  for  the  other's  com 
fort,  she  twittered  gently  on,  — 

"  It  came  about  in  what  some  folks  would  consider 
an  odd  way.  The  oddest  things  are  often  the  most 
natural,  if  we  see  them  in  the  right  light.  I  was  in 
the  brownest  sort  of  a  study  when  I  happened  upon 
this  cutting.  'T  was  just  as  though  an  angel  poked 
it  right  under  my  eyes,  and  said,  '  How  is  it  that 
you  have  no  faith  ?  Here  's  what  you  need. ' 
There  's  no  doubt  that  such  things  do  happen.  And 
why  not,  to  be  sure  ?  He  gives  them  charge  to  see 


120  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

that  we  don't  stub  our  toes  in  our  daily  walk.  I 
heard  a  minister  say  once  that  passage  meant  in  the 
language  —  Hebrew,  I  think  it  was  —  it  was  first 
written  in,  '  Lest  thou  touch  thy  foot  against  a 
very  little  stone.'  A  pebble,  1  suppose,  and  there's 
different  sizes  of  pebbles. 

"  But  here  's  my  recipe  for  mixing  the  fruit  even 
all  through  the  cake." 

She  read  better  than  could  have  been  expected 
from  a  woman  of  her  limited  education,  giving  each 
syllable  due  consideration,  and  was  heedful  of  punc 
tuation  points. 

"  Some  sick  folks  —  mostly  men  —  like  to  be 
amused  by  having  the  newspapers  read,"  she  used 
to  say;  uand  children  can  be  kept  still  any  length  of 
time  with  nice  little  stories ;  and  it 's  surprising  what 
an  effect  reading  the  Psalms  —  the  comforting, 
promising  ones  —  has  upon  nervous  and  low-spirited 
invaleeds.  As  for  the  Gospels,  they  suit  all  kinds, 
I  find." 

When  the  article  was  finished,  she  saw  that  Mrs. 
Paull  had  turned  upon  her  side,  and  slipped  her 
hand  under  her  cheek.  The  gleam  of  the  sunken 
eyes  was  dimmed,  not  quenched.  It  was  something 
that  she  had  shifted  her  position  voluntarily,  but  her 
tone  was  not  encouraging,  - 

"I  know  just  what  manner  of  man  wrote  that," 
she  said,  a  slight  flavor  of  scorn  in  the  feeble  voice. 
"A  pious,  easy-going  soul,  who  never  had  deep 
experience  of  any  kind.  Life  had  gone  upon  velvet 
for  him,  and  he  judged  other  people's  trials  and 
temptations  by  his  own." 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  121 

"Do  you  think  so?"  said  the  nurse,  looking  at 
the  reverse  side  of  the  clipping,  as  if  hoping  there 
to  discover  whether  or  not  the  criticism  were  correct. 
"  Now,  I  was  hoping  that  he  had  studied  the  lesson 
out  for  himself,  and  found  it  so  useful  that  he 
could  n't  help  but  recommend  it  to  us,  who  had  been 
tried  and  tempted,  and  had  suffered  in  the  same  way. 
It  reads  to  me  like,  '  Oh,  taste  and  see. ' 

She  read  the  extract  over  again  silently  to  herself 
before  resuming  her  talk. 

"I  know  lots  of  people  who  have  learned  to  live 
by  the  day,  and  even  hour;  but  this  minute  busi 
ness  is  spandy  new  to  me.  And  it  does  seem  to  me 
to  fit  in  splendid  with  the  hairs-of-your-head  and  the 
falling-sparrow  and  the  grass-of-the-field  and  the 
young-ravens-when-they-cry  doctrine. " 

"  But  nobody  takes  such  figures  of  speech  literally. 
It  would  be  childish  to  pretend  to  live  in  that  way  in 
a  practical  age.  An  intelligent  man  or  woman 
must  plan  and  provide  for  — •  and  dread  —  the 
unknown  future.  With  at  least  one-half  of  those 
who  know  the  uncertainties  and  terrors  of  life,  it 
is  a  fearful  looking- forward, — a  fearful  looking- 
forward !  " 

The  scorn  was  sadder,  the  intonations  were  deso 
late.  She  moved  uneasily  among  her  pillows.  The 
probe  had  found  the  ball.  Mrs.  Williams  had  assisted 
at  too  many  operations  not  to  understand  what  the 
flinch  meant. 

"That  fearful  looking-forward  is  a  part  of  the 
doom  of  the  impenitent,"  she  said,  quietly.  "When 
the  beloved  of  the  Lord  are  permitted  to  look  ahead, 


122  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

they  are  commanded  to  lift  their  heads  and  look  up. 
That 's  the  only  use  they  have  for  far-sighted  eyes. 

"  '  /  will  lift  up  mine  eyes  unto  the  hills,  from  whence 
cometh  my  help. ' 

"  i  Look  unto  Me,  and  be  ye  saved. ' 

"  From  Genesis  to  Revelations  it  is  '  Up !  up ! ' 
It 's  the  only  safe  and  sensible  thing  to  do  when 
you  're  travelling  in  dizzy  places,  whether  it 's  with 
our  bodily  feet  or  in  spirit.  The  dear  Lord  blind 
folds  us  when  the  road  is  very  dangerous,  then  lays 
tight  hold  of  our  hands,  and  His  voice  —  not  behind 
us,  but  close  beside  us,  oh,  so  close  and  so  sweet! 
—  says :  '  This  is  the  way  !  Walk  ye  in  it !  '  And 
'  /  will  lead  them  in  paths  they  have  not  known. ' 
The  sheep  know  His  voice,  and  ask  nothing  better 
than  to  follow  Him.  'T  would  be  the  foolishest 
thing  in  nature  to  try  to  pull  off  the  bandage. 
Yet  that  is  what  the  best  of  us  are  apt  to  do." 

The  conversation  was  stayed  at  that  for  a  long 
while.  Mrs.  Williams  took  up  her  knitting,  —  a 
shawl  of  cream-white  Saxony  wool,  intended,  although 
nobody  but  herself  knew  this,  for  a  Christmas  present 
to  Mrs.  Paull.  Her  needles  did  not  click,  and  the 
fluffy  fabric  harmonized  with  her  personality  in 
some  mysterious  way. 

"I  don't  think  I  took  in  the  full  meaning  of  what 
you  said  just  now,"  came  at  last  from  her  companion. 
"Existence  would  be  a  tame  affair  if  all  ordered 
their  thoughts  according  to  your  rule.  We  might  as 
well  have  been  born  short-sighted  in  soul  and  mind. " 

"  'T  would  have  been  more  comfortable  if  this  was 
all  the  life  we  are  to  have.  My  eyes  are  uncommon 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  123 

strong  for  a  woman  of  fifty-three,  but  a  year  ago  tins 
month  something  or  other  ailed  'em.  When  I  'd 
hold  a  book  or  my  work  down  this  way,  I  'd  see  a 
shadow  of  a  line  just  above  the  real  one.  'T  was  a 
sort  of  double  sight,  and  it  bothered  me  no  end. 
So  I  went  to  an  okkerlist.  My  pastor  gave  me  a 
letter  to  him.  He  flashed  a  light  way  down  to  the 
bottom  of  my  eyeballs,  and  went  through  all  manner 
of  tests  with  'em,  and  then,  says  he,  '  What  have  you 
been  doing  to  strain  your  optic  muscle  ?  Have  you 
been  reading  in  bed  or  anything  like  that,  when  you 
were  n't  in  your  usual  health  ? ' 

"So  I  had  to  confess  that,  being  laid  up  for  a 
couple  of  weeks  with  influenzy,  I  had  read  in  bed 
the  whole  enduring  time,  seeing  I  so  seldom  get  a 
chance  to  indulge  myself  that  way,  and  being  awful 
fond  of  books.  He  said  when  I  did  that,  the  angle 
of  vision  was  n't  right.  So  I  paid  for  my  foolishness 
and  ignorance  by  being  unable  to  wear  civilized 
people's  glasses,  but  must  have  a  pair  ground 
slanting-like  to  suit  the  sight  I  'd  twisied  from  the 
uprightness  in  which  the  Almighty  had  created  it. 
Now,  't  seems  to  me  that 's  about  what  we  do  when 
we  go  against  God's  law  of  spiritual  sight.  He 
gives  us  one  day  at  a  time,  and  tells  us  to  make  the 
best  of  it.  And  we  are  continually  peeping  'round 
or  under  or  over  it,  in  a  fease  to  see  what 's  coming 
next,  at  an  angle  He  never  intended  us  to  use.  It 's 
no  wonder  we  get  cross-eyed  and  what  not,  and  lose 
our  clear  views  of  life,  and  can't  see  heaven  straight 
without  we  have  gospel  glasses,  ground  expressly  to 
suit  what  we  've  made  ourselves  to  be." 


124  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Mrs.  Paull  looked  unaffectedly  amused,  yet 
thoughtful. 

"  Still  you  say  there  are  people  who  have  trained 
themselves  not  to  look  beyond  the  day.  How  do 
they  begin  the  work  ?  " 

"  By  receiving  the  kingdom  of  heaven  and  all 
belonging  to  it  as  little  children.  When  God  says 
a  thing,  they  just  simply  believe  it.  That 's  the 
whole  secret.  They  believe  it  as  babies  believe  in 
their  mothers,  —  take  Him  at  His  word  as  Gladys 
takes  all  you  say  for  gospel  truth.  If  you  were  to 
say  to  her  in  a  thunder-storm,  '  Mamma  will  keep 
you  safe,  dear,'  she  'd  not  have  another  fear." 

"  Yes,  because  she  sees  and  hears  me.  We  have 
no  guarantee  that  God  has  any  especial  message  for 
the  individual  human  soul.  I  am  still  in  the  dark 
as  to  the  first  lesson  of  your  faith  and  practice. 
Where  do  you  get  your  certified  orders  ?  " 

"He  says,  '  When  ye  pray,  say  our  Father,  who 
art  in  heaven, '  and  so  on.  When  you  get  to  '  give 
us  this  day, '  —  or,  as  the  New  Version  puts  it  in  the 
margin,  '  day  by  day  our  daily  bread, '  —  stop  and  ask 
yourself  if  He  has  n't  some  merciful  reason  for 
repeating  that  '  daily  '  idea  so  often.  It  is  a  kind 
of  fence  He  has  built  about  to-day. 

"  You  've  got  nothing  to  do  with  what  is  going  on 
outside;  He  says  to  you  by  that  form  of  prayer: 
'  To-day  is  your  business,  and  there  's  enough  to  do 
to  keep  you  busy.  To-morrow  belongs  to  me. ' 

"  I  've  got  a  piece  of  poetry  at  home  I  '11  have 
copied  off  for  you  some  time,  if  you  don't  mind,  that 
says  how  '  from  the  coming  ages  '  we  must  '  reverent 


THE    ROYAL    ROAD.  125 

take  the  virgin  day. '  That  1s  the  idea  !  A  new  day, 
a  clean  day,  —  something  made  just  purposely  for 
each  of  us,  that  nobody  has  ever  had  in  all  eternity 
past  until  this  very  morning;  something  to  be  im 
proved  and  enjoyed  with  all  our  heart,  soul,  and 
strength,  before  it  is  sealed  up  and  laid  away  with 
all  the  yesterdays  that  have  been  since  creation, 
and  labelled  along  with  God's  eternal  years." 

She  wrought  industriously  at  the  creamy  shawl, 
knitting  one  needle  out  and  another  in,  then  looked 
up  smilingly,  - 

"  I  shall  never  forget  when  I  first  got  hold  of  that 
beautiful  idea,  and  what  a  lovely  thing  the  fresh 
day  seemed  to  me !  Not  a  thumb-mark,  not  a  spot 
or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing.  I  saw  a  thousand 
pleasant  things  to  be  happy  for,  and  to  wonder  at, 
as  the  hours  went  by,  that  I  would  have  missed  if  I 
had  been  thinking  about  what  might  happen  to 
morrow  ;  and  knowing  it 's  all  I  am  sure  of,  I  make 
so  much  more  of  little  things,"  unmindful,  in  her 
enthusiasm,  of  the  change  in  her  tenses.  "  By  bed 
time,  when  you  come  to  say  your  prayers,  —  "  mixing 
up  persons  in  like  happy  confusion,  —  "you  are 
actually  afraid  of  wearying  the  Lord,  if  that  could 
be  (which  it  is  n't!),  with  your  thanksgivings.  And, 
when  you  lay  your  head  upon  your  pillow,  you  fall 
asleep  like  a  well  baby  in  its  mother's  arms.  That 
day  is  done  with,  —  shut  and  wrapped  up  carefully 
and  put  into  God's  safe  hands." 

"Nevertheless,  I  should  think  you  would  find  life 
monotonous,  — •  a  very  tame  affair,  as  I  said  just  now ; 
just  the  same  story  over  and  over  and  over  to  the 


126  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

end  of  time.  The  hope  that  to-morrow  may  bring  a 
change  in  their  condition  is  all  that  keeps  miserable 
people  from  despair. " 

"You  would  swap  hope  off  for  faith.  I  'd  better 
say,  perhaps,  you  would  run  the  two  into  one  grace. 
'  What  man  has  done,  man  may  do  again,'  is  a 
saying  that  people  find  no  difficulty  in  believing. 
What  God  has  done  in  the  way  of  goodness  and 
mercy,  God  will  do  again,  and  keep  on  doing  to  all 
eternity.  If  He  took  care  of  me  all  day  yesterday, 
and  ever^  other  yesterday  I  have  ever  lived;  and 
forgave  my  sins  and  granted  me  the  joy  of  His  coun 
tenance,  and  healed  my  sorrows,  and  strengthened 
me  to  do  His  holy  will,  —  He  's  bound  to  do  as  much 
for  me  to-day.  Why,  it 's  for  to-day  He  promises 
strength  and  grace,  and  our  Saviour  positively  for 
bids  us  to  worry  about  to-morrow.  Our  minister's 
wife  made  a  real  helpful  talk  on  this  subject  at  our 
last  woman's  prayer-meeting.  In  it  she  told  how 
some  good  man  —  John  Newton,  I  think  —  had  said 
that  each  day  of  life  is  like  a  stick  of  wood  given  us 
to  carry,  and  how  we  are  promised  strength  to  be  able 
to  do  it.  But,  he  said,  when  we  lay  atop  of  that  to 
morrow's  stick,  and  day  after  to-morrow's  and  next 
week's,  it 's  no  wonder  that  we  break  down.  We 
are  abusing  God's  long-suffering,  and  not  keeping 
ourselves  back  from  presumptuous  sins.  He  holds 
fast  to  His  word.  The  trouble  is  we  have  n't  obeyed 
orders.  'For,'  as  she  said,  '  there  is  nowhere  in 
God's  word  the  promise  of  grace  for  fagots.' 

"  But  there  !     I  ain't  going  to  preach  any  longer. 
Dr.  Bacon  makes  lots  of  fun  about  that  very  thing. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  127 

He  says  my  tongue  runs  like  a  mill-race  when  1  get 
started  upon  the  Royal  Road." 

"  I  am  not  tired,  —  except  of  myself  and  my  own 
thoughts!" 

The  last  words  escaped  her  unguardedly.  She 
tossed  her  hands  out  restlessly  upon  the  coverlet. 

"  It  is  good  in  you  to  talk  to  me  of  something  else. 
It  all  sounds  as  if  it  ought  to  hold  a  world  of  com 
fort,  if  we  only  had  the  key.  I  can  understand  " 
-  with  a  sort  of  sorrowful  archness  —  "  why  you 
have  been  so  patient  with  me  all  these  dreary  days. 
You  took  me  by  the  day.  Go  on  with  your  story. 
What  is  this  Royal  Road  at  which  Dr.  Bacon 
laughs  ? " 

"That's  Mr.  Stevens's  name  for  it.  In  the  first 
sermon  I  ever  heard  him  preach,  he  said,  as  near  as 
I  can  recollect,  - 

"  4  We  were  told  when  we  were  little  tots  of  children, 
and  were  so  foolish  as  to  think  that  we  could  read 
right  off,  without  learning  our  A,  B,  C's,  that  there 
is  no  Royal  Road  to  learning.  That  is  a  fact  there 
is  no  getting  around.  It 's  just  as  truly  a  fact,  and  a 
far  more  glorious  one,  that  there  is  a  Royal  Road  to 
happiness.  That 's  what  all  the  men  and  women 
that  have  lived  for  the  last  six  thousand  years  have 
been  trying  to  find,  —  the  certain  way  to  be  happy. ' 
Then  he  went  on  to  describe  the  hundreds  of  ways 
they  'd  taken,  the  blood  that  had  been  shed,  the 
money  that  had  been  wasted,  the  hearts  that  had 
been  broken,  the  souls  that  had  been  lost  in  searching 
for  happiness  along  the  wrong  roads.  There  are  as 
many  of  them,  he  told  us,  as  there  are  stars  in  the 


128  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Milky  Way,  and  folks  are  all  the  time  opening  and 
laying  out  new  ones. 

"  At  last  he  said  if  we  'd  all  come  again  next  Sun 
day  night,  he  'd  tell  us  how  to  find,  and  how  to  keep 
in  the  Royal  Road  to  happiness.  And  with  that, 
he  gave  out  a  hymn,  and  pronounced  the  benediction, 
and  sent  us  home,  not  knowing  whether  to  laugh  or 
be  provoked,  but  all  of  a  mind  about  coming  again 
next  Sunday  night. 

"He's  all  the  time  doing  that  sort  of  thing. 
Folks  call  him  '  eccentric  '  and  '  sensational,'  and 
harder  names  than  those;  but  he  knows  how  to 
'  fetch  '  the  common  people.  Come  to  look  at  his 
ways,  they  may  n't,  after  all,  be  very  different  from 
what  Saint  Paul  meant  by  catching  his  hearers  by 
guile.  I  should  n't  wonder  if  the  scribes  and  Phari 
sees  brought  some  such  railing  accusations  against 
the  Saviour  when  they  found  Him  telling  stories  to 
the  multitude  about  Prodigal  Sons  and  Unjust 
Stewards  and  Houses  built  on  the  Sand,  and  Rich 
Men  and  Beggars,  and  calling  their  attention  to 
lilies  of  the  field  and  red  sunrises. 

"  Well,  you  may  be  sure,  we  were  all  on  hand  next 
Sunday  evening,  and  it  looked  like  every  one  of  us 
had  fetched  his  own  brother  and  his  own  sister  to 
boot.  There  was  n't  room  to  move,  and  hardly  air 
enough  to  breathe,  with  the  people  packed  into  the 
seats  and  standing  in  the  aisle. 

"  It  's  time  for  your  drops  again,  I  see !  They  're 
pleasanter  than  the  last,  ain't  they  ?  "  when  the  med 
icine  had  been  taken.  "They  're  beginning  to  take 
hold  of  you,  too,  I  can  see.  Your  color  is  better, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  129 

and  strength  is  coming  into  your  body.  I  've  faith 
in  Dr.  Bacon,  if  he  does  enjoy  making  game  of  me. " 

She  broke  off  at  the  sound  of  a  tap  at  the  door. 

"It 's  the  little  ones  on  their  way  to  their  supper," 
she  said  tenderly. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


'T  is  easy  to  be  gentle  when 

Death's  silence  shames  our  clamor, 
And  easy  to  discern  the  best 

Through  memory's  mystic  glamour ; 
But  wise  it  were  for  thee  and  me, 

Ere  love  is  past  forgiving, 
To  take  the  tender  lesson  home,  — 

Be  patient  with  the  living ! 

MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

MARIE  brought  in  the  three  children. 
It  was  Friday  afternoon,  and  she  had  arrived 
at  four  o'clock  to  pass  the  Sabbath  at  home.  After 
sitting  for  half  an  hour  with  her  mother,  she  had 
volunteered  to  look  after  the  children,  wiiile  Elspeth 
was  busy  below-stairs.  Since  Mrs.  Williams  had 
been  put  in  charge  of  the  sick-room,  a  sullen  change 
had  gradually  stolen  over  the  girl's  face  and  de 
meanor,  unperceived,  apparently,  by  the  mother,  but 
painful  to  Elspeth,  and  perplexing  to  the  hired  nurse. 
From  her  birth  this  daughter  had  been  the  father's 
favorite  child.  Latterly,  the  tie  between  them  had 
been  the  romantic  element  in  her  young  life.  He 
had  laughed  to  himself  slyly  sometimes,  at  certain 
indications  that  her  devotion  to  him  went  to  the 
length  of  being  jealous  of  the  loverly  attentions  he 
liked  to  pay  his  wife  when  the  fancy  seized  him  to 
act  the  exemplary  husband.  From  the  time  the 
child  could  run  alone,  she  used  to  declare  that  she 
intended  to  marry  papa  when  she  was  grown.  Her 
seat  was  next  his  at  table,  and  she  was  oftenest 
selected  as  his  companion  in  drive  or  walk.  Her 
vivacious  chatter  amused  the  world-weary  man.  He 
liked  to  lie  upon  the  lounge,  his  head  in  Marie's 
lap,  her  fingers  toying  with  curls  from  which  her 


134  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

own  had  caught  their  sunshine,  while  his  wife  played 
plaintive  nocturnes  and  brilliant  sonatas  for  his 
delectation.  Mrs.  Paull  did  not  interfere  with  the 
display  of  injudicious  favoritism.  Whatever  helped 
to  keep  Ernest  at  home,  and  bind  him  to  the  chil 
dren,  must  be  for  good.  While  Marie  remained 
dutiful  and  affectionate  to  herself,  she  found  no  fault 
with  her  greater  fondness  for  her  father.  It  was 
better  that  she  should  idealize  him  than  to  learn  pre 
maturely  to  know  him  for  what  he  was. 

Following  what  he  knew  would  be  his  sister's 
wishes  on  this  head,  Roger  Lanier  had  told  the 
girl  that  troublesome  business  had  called  her  father 
abroad  for  an  indefinite  period,  and  enjoined  upon 
her  the  necessity  of  avoiding  allusions  to  him  in  her 
mother's  presence  while  she  remained  ill. 

"You  are  old  enough  to  understand,  Marie,  that 
there  are  unpleasant  complications  in  business  life, 
and  that  some  of  these  would  deprive  a  man  of  his 
good  name,  in  the  estimation  of  some  people,"  he 
added,  awkwardly  enough,  for  the  fixed  gaze  of  the 
blue  eyes  challenged  the  correctness  of  his  tale. 
"I  cannot  enter  into  particulars  at  present.  You 
must  try  to  believe  that  I  am  acting  for  the  best,  and 
be  very  patient  with  your  mother  until  she  is  strong 
enough  to  take  control  of  her  own  affairs. " 

"  I  can  be  patient  with  her,  but  not  with  any  one 
who  insinuates  that  my  father  is  guilty  of  anything 
that  could  injure  his  reputation  if  the  whole  truth 
were  known,"  Marie  answered,  with  the  haughtiness 
of  an  offended  princess.  "Of  course,  I  shall  tell 
the  children,  as  you  advise,  that  their  dear  papa 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  135 

will  not  be  home  for  a  long  time,  —  just  that,  and 
nothing  more.  And  you  may  depend  upon  me  never 
to  introduce  his  name  in  conversation  with  mamma. 
Further  than  this,  I  promise  nothing. " 

Angry,  compassionate,  yet  somewhat  amused  by 
what  he  considered  her  "ridiculous  high-tragedy 
airs,"  the  uncle  next  sought  an  interview  with  his 
eldest  nephew,  who  bore  the  family  name  and  his 
mother's  face.  Him  he  took  into  fuller  confidence. 
Lanier  was  over  seventeen,  a  lad  of  singular  sense 
and  discretion,  and  a  Freshman  in  Yale  College. 
His  uncle  admitted  to  him,  by  tactful  degrees,  that 
his  father  had  misapplied  trust-funds,  intending,  no 
doubt,  to  put  them  back  into  the  hands  of  their 
lawful  owners,  when  he  had  made  his  profit  out 
of  them.  The  failure  of  a  speculation  that  had 
promised  well  would  compel  him  to  remain  out  of 
the  country  until  the  matter  could  be  adjusted  or 
should  be  forgotten. 

The  young  face  flushed  darkly ;  the  features  were 
set  hard  in  pain  and  mortification. 

"  Can  there  be  no  mistake,  Uncle  Eoger  ?  Have 
you  looked  into  the  affair  for  yourself  ?  " 

"  My  boy !  could  I  rest  a  day  without  going  to  the 
bottom  of  it  ?  All  that  I  have  told  you  is  unfor 
tunately,  fatally  true.  Your  mother,  I  need  not 
remind  so  good  a  son  as  yourself,  Lanier,  is  the 
person  most  seriously  affected  by  your  father's  error. 
You  are  now  her  mainstay.  Care  for  her  as  a  loving, 
sorrowing  wife  should  be  cared  for.  It  is  a  sacred 
charge. " 

The  most  shameful  part  of  the  story  was  kept  back 


136  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

from  all  of  Ernest  PaulPs  children.  It  was  not  a 
tale  for  young  ears. 

Lanier  wrote  daily  to  his  mother,  when  she  was 
well  enough  to  read  his  letters,  fondly,  and  with 
tenderest  solicitude,  striving  to  cheer  her  without 
betraying  his  knowledge  of  the  extent  of  her  grief 
and  need.  The  brightest  hour  in  the  twenty -four  for 
her  was  that  in  which  she  received  and  read  his  love- 
notes,  yet  Mrs.  Williams  had  marvelled  within  her 
self  that  the  effect  produced  by  them  was  transitory. 

Mrs.  Paull  held  out  her  hand  to  the  babyest  of  the 
quartette,  as  they  tiptoed  up  to  the  bed. 

"  Lift  her  up,  please,  Marie ! "  she  said,  motioning 
to  the  place  enclosed  by  her  arm. 

When  the  rosy  cheek  touched  hers  upon  the  pillow, 
she  asked,  — 

"What  has  my  little  Gladys  been  doing  this 
afternoon  ?  " 

Marie's  attempt  to  catch  the  child's  eye,  unseen 
by  the  mother  or  Gladys,  did  not  escape  Mrs. 
Williams. 

"  Marie  has  been  dressing  my  doll,  and  talking  to 
us  of  dear  papa,"  chirped  the  baby.  "I  wish  he 
would  come  home !  "  heaving  a  sigh.  "  We  cried 
two  times  this  evening  —  Marie  and  me,  both  —  for 
him." 

"  We  didn't!"  protested  the  boys,  stoutly,  nine- 
year-old  Tom  adding,  "  All  the  same,  we  want  to  see 
him  awfully. " 

Mrs.  Paull  pressed  her  hand  over  her  eyes.  The 
lower  part  of  her  face  was  so  ghastly  that  the  nurse 
came  to  the  front. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  137 

"  Now,  my  chickens,  your  supper  is  all  ready  for 
you  downstairs.  When  I  was  in  the  kitchen  awhile 
ago,  I  was  sure  that  I  smelled  cookies ;  or  it  may 
have  been  gingerbread.  Your  mother  hopes  to  sit 
up  in  her  easy-chair  a  little  while  to-morrow,  if  we 
don't  tire  her  too  much  to-night.  1  should  n't  be  a 
mite  surprised  if  she  should  be  strong  enough  to 
hold  Gladys  in  her  lap  in  a  week.  People  get  well 
fast  after  they  begin  to  sit  up. " 

She  swung  Gladys  from  the  bed,  and  tossed  her  up 
at  the  full  length  of  her  robust  arms,  kissed  her 
cheek  as  she  set  her  upon  the  floor,  and  opening  the 
door,  bustled  the  laughing  party  into  the  hall. 

"  If  you  eat  a  good  supper  and  don't  get  your  faces 
and  hands  sticky,  you  can  peep  in  at  mamma  again 
to  say  '  Good-night, '  "  she  sent  down  the  stairs  after 
them. 

Marie  darted  a  ray  of  indignant  contempt  at  her, 
drew  up  her  slight  figure,  and  from  her  stand  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed,  surveyed  her  mother  silently,  evi 
dently  waiting  for  her  to  uncover  her  eyes. 

"  If  I  believed  in  shaking  people,  I  should  be  dis 
posed  to  try  it  on  her,"  was  the  nurse's  first  thought, 
superseded  by  a  kinder  second,  after  a  glance  at  the 
pale  misery  of  the  girl's  face.  Something  must  be 
done  before  Mrs.  Paull  met  the  meaning  gaze.  She 
began  in  desperate  cheerfulness,  — 

"  You  have  no  idea,  Miss  Marie,  what  a  difference 
your  coming  home  makes  to  us  all.  I  believe  those 
children  begin  to  count  the  days  from  the  time  you 
leave  us  on  Monday  morning,  until  you  are  to  be 
with  us  again;  and  I  had  to  laugh  to-day,  to  hear 


138  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

Elspeth  singing,  '  There  's  nae  luck  aboot  th'  house, ' 
while  she  was  making  up  your  bed." 

"  She  did  n't  sing  the  next  line,  I  suppose,  being 
under  orders  ? "  struck  in  Marie,  unexpectedly,  a 
sardonic  gleam  playing  over  her  face.  "  Can  I  speak 
to  you  in  the  other  room,  Mrs.  Williams  ?  " 

Mr.  PaulPs  portrait  was  there  still,  set  carefully 
upon  the  table,  but  in  a  corner  out  of  the  reach  of 
possible  harm.  Marie  closed  the  inner  door  behind 
them,  and  confronted  the  nurse,  head  up  and  nostrils 
quivering. 

"I  am  forbidden,  by  my  uncle,  Mr.  Lanier,  to 
speak  to  my  mother  upon  the  subject  that  lies  nearest 
my  heart,"  she  said  frigidly.  "It  is  evident  that 
you,  also,  are  acting  under  orders.  Perhaps  you 
may  be  authorized  to  transact  business  in  his  absence  ? 
It  is  a  singular  state  of  things  when  a  daughter, 
who  has  been  honored  all  her  life  long  with  the 
confidence  of  both  parents,  must  use  a  comparative 
stranger  as  a  medium  of  communication  with  her 
mother. " 

She  became  more  stilted  in  speech  as  she  went  on, 
bent  as  she  was,  in  her  girlish  arrogance,  upon  crush 
ing  the  presumptuous  intruder.  She  completed  the 
absurdity  by  a  wave  of  the  hand,  which,  had  Mrs. 
Williams  ever  known  Ernest  Paull,  would  have 
brought  him  to  her  mind. 

"  But  let  that  pass.  My  object  in  asking  for  a  few 
minutes  of  your  valuable  time  —  for  which,  I  sup 
pose,  my  uncle  remunerates  you — is  to  inquire  if  I 
may  take  that  picture  up  to  my  own  room.  It  is  but 
so  much  rubbish  on  this  floor.  Have  you  the  liberty 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  139 

to  tell  me  if  my  mother  has  expressed  any  desire  to 
have  it  back  in  the  old  place,  —  the  place  my  father 
meant  it  to  hold  when  he  gave  it  to  her  ?  " 

"Not  yet,  Miss  Marie.  She  is,  as  you  can  see, 
extremely  weak  and  nervous;  not  at  all  herself,  in 
fact  —  " 

Another  wave  of  the  hand,  intended  to  be  majestic, 
but  merely  impatient. 

"I  do  not  care  to  enter  upon  the  subject  of  my 
mother's  nerves  —  or  notions.  Mrs.  Williams,  Dr. 
Bacon,  and  Mr.  Lanier  are  the  committee  upon  them. 
I  have,  however,  I  am  proud  to  say,  some  claim  upon 
my  father.  Will  you  discover,  at  your  earliest 
convenience,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  slight  consola 
tion  in  his  absence,  of  having  his  portrait  ?  At  least 
until  his  wife's  nervous  system  recovers  tone,  and 
she  can  bear  the  sight  of  it. " 

Mrs.  Williams  was  the  picture  of  unruffled  benev 
olence,  unconscious  of  her  figurative  annihilation  at 
the  hands  of  Ernest  PaulPs  champion. 

u  There  can  be  no  earthly  objection  to  your  having 
the  picture  whenever  you  like,  I  am  sure,  my  dear, 
and  hanging  it  wherever  you  think  best.  Next  to 
your  mother's,  yours  is  the  best  right.  I  will  carry 
it  up  for  you  while  you  are  at  supper." 

"I  want  no  supper!  And  I  will  take  it  up  myself 
and  now,  before  the  permission  is  withdrawn." 

It  was  a  bulky  burden  for  the  slender  arms ;  but, 
with  her  unfailing  tact,  Mrs.  Williams  restrained 
the  impulse  to  offer  assistance  beyond  holding  the 
door  open  for  her  to  pass  out  with  the  coveted  treas 
ure.  The  habit  of  close,  silent  observation  showed 


140  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

her  that  the  girl's  heart  swelled  and  that  she  bit  her 
lips  in  mounting  the  stairs. 

"  She  is  game  to  the  backbone,  but  she  is  nothing 
but  a  child,"  she  reflected,  her  throat  swelling  in 
sympathy.  "  He  is  her  idol.  There  's  depths  of 
mercy  even  for  the  unthankful  and  the  evil,  and  that 
man  may  yet  see  the  error  of  his  ways. " 

Mrs.  Paull  asked  no  questions  when  her  custodian 
returned.  If  she  was  cognizant  of  the  interview, 
and  gave  it  a  thought,  she  imagined  that  Marie  had 
wished  to  consult  Mrs.  Williams  upon  some  matter 
of  household  economy.  She  had  fallen  back  into 
her  old  attitude,  —  her  hands  clasped  below  her  chin, 
her  eyes  resting  upon  the  ceiling.  The  nurse  re 
sumed  her  chair  and  her  knitting,  and  neither  spoke 
until  the  children  looked  in  for  their  "  Good-night " 
kiss. 

Elspeth  was  directly  behind  them.  She  brought 
up  half  of  a  broiled  quail,  a  bunch  of  purple  hot 
house  grapes,  and  a  cluster  of  La  France  roses,  all 
of  which  she  set  out  in  order  upon  a  bedside  stand. 

"Mr.  Lanier  sent  the  bonnie  bird;  Mrs.  Lanier 
sent  the  grapes.  The  roses  are  from  a  leddy  who 
says  she  was  at  school  with  ye  lang  syne. " 

The  card  she  presented  with  the  flowers  was 
engraved  with  the  name  of  "  Mrs.  William  C.  Barnes, 
106  Wyandotte  Avenue."  Upon  the  other  side  was 
pencilled,  "  Have  you  forgotten  Annie  Meredith  ? 
She  sends  these,  with  dear  love  and  prayers  for  your 
speedy  recovery." 

"  Annie  Meredith ! "  repeated  the  sick  woman, 
wonderingly.  "  Am  I  in  her  part  of  Brooklyn  ?  " 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  141 

"  Why,  that 's  our  minister's  wife !  And  I  was 
talking  about  her  to  you  only  this  evening !  "  cried 
Mrs.  Williams.  "  Here  is  something  to  give  you  an 
appetite.  I  always  insist  there  's  no  sauce  like  an 
agreeable  piece  of  news.  1  met  Dr.  Barnes  right  by 
your  door  last  night  when  I  ran  around  to  the  drug 
gist's,  and  stopped  to  tell  him  that  I  was  nursing 
you,  and  that  you  were  getting  on  comfortably,  with 
never  an  idea  that  you  knew  his  wife.  I  s'pose  she 
put  it  all  together  when  he  got  home  and  spoke  of 
seeing  me.  Ah !  but  she  is  one  of  the  blessed  among 
women,  I  can  tell  you ! 

"You're  another,  Elspeth,  for  cooking  this  quail 
to  perfection.  No !  "  seeing  Mrs.  Paull  about  to  speak, 
"I  can't  answer  a  single  question  about  your  old 
friend,  —  'though  there  's  lots  and  lots  to  tell  —  until 
you  've  done  justice  to  your  supper  and  to  Elspeth. " 

The  Scotchwoman's  dry  smile  was  somewhat 
forced.  One  of  her  nurslings  was  missing;  and  as 
soon  as  she  could  get  them  out  of  the  room,  she 
marshalled  the  boys,  and,  with  Gladys  in  her  arms, 
mounted  to  the  upper  story. 

The  front  chamber  immediately  over  Mrs.  PaulPs 
was  Marie's.  The  hall  bedroom  adjoining  was 
shared  by  Tom  and  Edwin;  Elspeth  had  slept  in 
the  nursery  with  Gladys's  crib  beside  her  bed  since 
Mrs.  Paull  fell  ill.  She  undressed  the  child,  and  put 
her  to  bed  before  looking  up  the  absent  and  fasting 
member  of  her  flock.  Marie's  door  was  locked  on 
the  inside,  and  half-a-dozen  guarded  knocks  upon 
the  panels  were  unanswered.  Elspeth  stooped  to 
put  her  lips  to  the  key-hole. 


142  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  Me  bairnie !  winria  ye  open  to  yer  auld  nurse  ?  " 

Still  there  was  an  irresolute  pause  before  the  key 
was  turned,  and  Marie  appeared,  her  eyes  swollen 
and  cheeks  discolored  with  crying. 

"  Cannot  even  you  leave  me  alone,  Elspeth  ?  I 
would  not  have  let  anybody  else  in. " 

"That's  partly  why  I  cam'.  Ye '11  be  ill  if  ye 
tak'  neither  bit  nor  sup  the  night. " 

"  I  want  nothing !     I  could  not  eat  a  mouthful. " 

The  stiff  pose  and  defiant  tone  gave  way  before 
the  sweep  of  childish  emotion.  She  threw  herself 
sobbing  into  the  Scotchwoman's  arms. 

u  Elspeth !  my  heart  is  breaking  for  my  father ! 
Where  is  he  ?  What  terrible  thing  has  driven  him 
from  home  and  lost  him  everybody's  love  but  mine  ? 
Why  am  I  to  ask  no  questions,  and  why  does  my 
mother  shudder  at  the  sound  of  his  name  as  if  he 
were  something  evil  and  hateful  ?  He  has  been  gone 
over  three  weeks,  and  not  a  word  has  come  from 
him.  Is  he  dead,  —  and  Uncle  Roger  will  not  let 
me  know  ?  " 

u  Save  and  bless  the  child !  what  could  put  that 
into  your  bit  head  ?  No,  my  puir  bairnie,  no ! 
never  that  I  've  been  told.  Mr.  Lanier,  he  but  said 
to  me  that  Mr.  Paull  had  gone  over  the  sea  to  furren 
pairts  on  business,  and  it  wad  likely  be  quite  a  while 
before  we  'd  hear  from  him.  But  there  's  nae  sic 
thing  as  ye  spoke  of,  my  bonnie  lassie.  Not  nearly 
so  close  to  it  as  she  that  lies  downstairs,  that 's 
been  to  the  very  gate  of  the  dark  valley,  and  is  still 
as  like  to  gae  through  the  one  door  as  th'  ither,  if 
the  truth  were  known.  It  's  your  mother  I  'm  on 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  143 

the  knees  of  me  heart  for,  all  the  day  long.  Yer 
father  's  a  man,  —  and  healthy  and  strong,  for  all  ony 
of  us  ken  to  the  contrary,  and  able  to  fend  for 
himself." 

Marie  raised  her  head  from  the  broad  shoulder, 
and  pushed  herself  away  from  the  would-be  comforter. 

"You  are  like  all  the  rest  of  them!  He  is  an 
angel  on  earth  or  in  heaven !  And  there  is  not  one 
of  all  those  whom  he  has  befriended,  or  whom  he 
loves,  who  cares  whether  he  be  alive  or  dead,  but 
only  myself.  But  I  '11  never  forsake  him,  —  never! 
never !  Do  you  see  that  ?  " 

She  pointed  to  the  portrait  hung  over  against  the 
bed,  as  it  had  hung  by  her  mother's.  Upon  a  stand 
below  it,  she  had  arranged  her  Bible  and  several 
devotional  books,  and  directly  under  the  pictured 
face  was  a  vase  of  clouded  glass,  —  a  "tear  vase," 
as  it  is  called,  —  with  a  spray  of  heliotrope, 

"It  was  his  favorite  flower.  Do  you  recollect 
how  he  would  come  to  me  every  morning  for  a 
sprig  from  my  heliotrope  bush,  and  how  he  always 
kissed  me  after  I  had  pinned  it  upon  his  coat  ?  I  '11 
say  my  prayers  right  there,  night  and  morning, 
when  I'm  at  home,  —  if  the  house  where  he  is  for 
gotten  and  his  very  name  blotted  out  can  be  called 
*  home.'  Wherever  I  go,  he  is  my  patron  saint." 

"  Humph ! "  Had  her  life  depended  upon  her 
silence,  Elspeth  could  hardly  have  repressed  the 
homely  sniff.  "I  'm  thinking  ye  '11  mak'  but  a  puir 
Papist  if  fasting  for  a  matter  of  sax  hours  has  made 
ye  daft.  It 's  to  be  hoped  the  mother  will  surely  get 
well.  The  children  wad  fare  ill  if  they  'd  nought 


144  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

but  a  feather-headed  bit  like  ye  to  look  to  for  clothes 
and  common  sense.  I  've  nae  time  to  waste  chatter 
ing  an'  havering  here  aboot  heliotropes  and  patron 
saints,  when  there  's  a  living  Christian  in  need  of 
nursing.  Ye  '11  either  come  down  to  yer  tea  like 
a  sane  body,  or  I'll  send  it  to  ye  by  the  hand  of  Mrs. 
Williams,  and  myseP  step  around  to  Dr.  Bacon  for 
ye.  I  doobt  but  he  '11  clap  a  blister  on  the  back  o' 
yer  heid.  Ye  're  not  a'  right  there  or  somewheers 
else ! " 

She  looked,  and  as  Marie  knew,  was  altogether 
capable  of  carrying  out  the  threat.  Dumb  with 
useless  wrath,  the  defeated  girl  chose  the  lesser  evil 
of  sitting  down  to  the  cream-toast  and  broiled  ham 
prepared  for  her  by  the  tyrant  who  waited  upon  her 
as  if  nothing  had  occurred  to  mar  their  friendly 
relations. 

Sentimentality,  which  may  be  defined  as  fatty 
degeneration  of  naturally  healthy  sympathies,  met 
with  no  toleration  from  Elspeth.  Just  now  she  was 
too  much  engrossed  by  actual  and  pressing  anxieties 
to  waste  thought  upon  imaginary  or  over-wrought 
grief. 

Her  tone  had  a  more  hopeful  ring,  but  care  still 
sat  visibly  upon  her  brow  when  she  met  Mr.  Lanier 
at  his  visit  on  Saturday  forenoon. 

"She  's  sitting  up  the  day,  sir,"  in  response  to  his 
queries.  "  She  will  have  it  that  she  is  better,  and 
her  heart  is  set  upon  having  a  talk  with  yourseP. 
She  tell  't  me  awhile  ago  that  there  was  important 
business  must  be  looked  after,  and  she  had  put  it 
off  over  long  a' ready.  I  'in  wistful  to  be  putting 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  145 

a  word  into  yer  ear,  sir,  upon  another  matter  before 
you  see  her.  Saving  your  presence,  Miss  Marie  will 
come  to  grief  unless  her  mind  is  made  easier  the  one 
way  or  the  other. " 

In  fewer  words  than  any  other  of  five  hundred 
women  would  have  used,  she  narrated  the  incident 
of  the  portrait. 

Roger  Lanier's  clear-cut  features  were  marble  as 
he  listened.  He  had  never  liked  Ernest  Paull,  when 
the  latter  was  at  his  best.  At  his  worst,  he  detested 
him  as  cordially  as  a  Christian  man  can  detest  an 
unrepentant  sinner.  Marie's  impassioned  loyalty 
was  but  another  trail  of  the  serpent  over  the  stirred 
nest.  Elspeth  was  not  supersensitive,  but  she  lost 
courage  to  plead  the  cause  she  had  in  mind  when  she 
began  her  story,  at  sight  of  his  stony  visage.  Her 
voice  shook  a  little  in  concluding  with  an  appeal. 

"If  she  might  but  write  to  her  father,  say  once 
a  month,  sir,  —  he  's  that,  you  know,  sir,  and  unco' 
fond  o'  her,  --  't  wad  mak'  her  the  more  content,  and 
wad,  mayhap,  be  blest  to  his  guid  - 

Discovering  here  that  she  was  drifting  into  her 
vernacular,  and  standing  always  in  awe  of  her  mis 
tress's  dignified  kinsman,  she  lapsed  into  silence. 

Mr.  Lanier  raised  his  eyes  abruptly  from  a  seem 
ingly  minute  scrutiny  of  his  patent-leather  boots. 

41  You  have  been  with  Mrs.  Paull  a  long  time, 
Elspeth  ?  "  he  said  mildly,  although  his  face  was 
not  softened. 

"Sin'  five  years  before  she  was  married,  sir." 

"  You  are  so  well  acquainted  with  our  family 
•affairs,  it  is  but  just  I  should  take  you  into  fulJ 

10 


146  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

confidence  now,"  -two  odd  white  dents  deepening 
about  the  nostrils  as  he  talked.  "  In  my  judgment, 
it  would  be  better  if  the  two  elder  children,  at  least, 
were  given  plainly  to  understand  that  Mr.  Paull  is 
no  longer  to  be  considered  their  father,  or  their 
mother's  husband.  In  all  human  probability,  he 
will  never  return  to  America.  Not  to  disguise  an 
ugly  truth,  he  is  passing  off  another  woman  as  his 
wife  and  travelling  companion.  I  beg  your  pardon 
for  speaking  so  plainly !  "  —  for  the  upright  Scotch 
woman  uttered  a  low,  horrified  cry,  —  "  but  it  had  to 
be  said.  Their  mother  will  not  consent  that  the 
children  shall  hear  the  facts  in  the  case.  She 
thinks  that  they  will  gradually  forget  one  whom  they 
never  see,  and  whose  name  is  seldom  mentioned. 
I  have  paid  to  his  employers  the  money  he  stole,  and 
have  seen  to  it  that  the  wretched  story  did  not  find 
its  way  into  the  newspapers.  I  stand  prepared  to 
keep  my  sister  above  the  chance  of  want,  and  to  help 
educate  her  children.  All  this  I  have  written  to 
Ernest  Paull.  He  is,  I  have  discovered  through 
agents  I  have  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
living  in  Nice,  France,  under  the  name  of  4  Mr. 
Paul  Morgan,'  and  that  he  and  his  companion 
are  already  known  in  that  town  as  gambling  adven 
turers.  I  have  furthermore  notified  him  that  if  he 
ever  shows  his  face  in  this  country  again,  I  will  give 
him  up  to  the  law;  as  I  shall,  were  he  doubly  my 
brother-in-law.  He  has  destroyed  my  sister's  hap 
piness.  He  shall  not  hang  upon  her  life  like  a  foul 
growth  that  would  draw  all  the  strength  and  sweet 
ness  out  of  it !  " 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  147 

"Does  she  know  —  what  yon  have  told  me,  sir  ?  " 

The  question  was  whispered.  The  rugged  features 
were  wrung  out  of  their  grim  impassiveness  by  the 
revolting  revelation. 

"She  does.  I  had  to  break  the  news  to  her  in 
the  first  place,  and  three  days  ago  she  sent  the  nurse 
out  of  the  room,  and  would  know  what  I  had  heard 
since  she  was  struck  down  by  that  blow.  I  had  to 
tell  her." 

"The  wonder  is  that  she  is  n't  dead  outright,  sir, — 
her  that  fairly  worshipped  the  very  print  of  his  feet 
in  the  dust. " 

She  raised  a  corner  of  her  apron  to  her  eyes. 

"  If  she  had  not  sprung  from  genuine  Lanier  stock, 

-  if  she  were  one  degree  less  spirited,  —  she  would 

have  died,"  said  the  brother.     "As  to  Miss  Marie, 

—  she    is   an   especial   pet   of   yours,    I  am   aware, 

Elspeth,  —  but  she  is  her  father's  daughter,  within 

and    without.       All    this    rubbish    about   making   a 

patron  saint  of  a  man  who  is  not  worthy  to  black 

her  mother's  shoes,  — this  keeping  flowers  under  his 

portrait,  and  praying  to  it  —  " 

"Na!  na!  Mr.  Lanier!  I  dinna  say  that;  on'y 
that  she  was  minded  to  kneel  down  before  it  when 
she  prayed." 

In  the  depth  of  her  honest  distress,  she  could  not 
have  her  nursling  misrepresented. 

Mr.  Lanier  smiled  in  indulgent  amusement. 

"It  amounts  to  about  the  same  thing.  Marie 
would  be  a  nice  girl  but  for  her  likeness  in  character 
and  face  to  her  father.  She  may  come  to  something 
better  now  that  she  will  be  left  entirely  to  her 


148  THE   ROYAL   ROAD, 

mother's  management.  But  she  is  a  Paull,  and 
must  be  watched  carefully.  I  shall  urge  my  sister 
to-day  to  tell  her  everything,  young  as  she  is,  but  I 
have  little  hope  of  succeeding  in  making  her  mother 
see  that  she  owes  it  to  herself  to  do  this.  It  will 
be  just  like  the  silly  little  sentimentalist  that  Marie 
is  to  nurse  her  fancied  sorrows,  and  go  on  idolizing 
the  rascal,  who  would,  by  now,  be  lodged  behind 
prison  bars  if  he  had  not  happened  to  marry  Alice 
Lanier  eighteen  years  ago,  —  more  's  the  pity !  It 
would  be  just  like  Marie,  I  say,  to  add  to  her 
mother's  trials  by  disrespectful  behavior  and  cruel 
questions,  even  if  she  does  not  defy  her  authority 
altogether. " 

"  She  '11  not  do  that,  sir.  She  's  been  too  weel 
reared,  and  she  has  too  good  a  heart. " 

He  almost  laughed  now  at  the  anxious  deprecation 
in  word  and  accent. 

"I  am  willing  to  hope  so,  if  only  because  she  is 
your  favorite,  my  sister's  eldest  daughter,  and  my 
mother's  namesake.  All  depends  upon  our  success 
in  getting  the  Paull  out  of  her  nature,  and  the 
Lanier  in.  I  shall,  as  I  remarked,  try  to  change  her 
mother's  mind  with  respect  to  the  wisdom  of  telling 
Lanier  and  Marie  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and 
nothing  but  the  truth.  Is  she  ready  to  see  me 
now  ?  " 

When  their  footsteps  sounded  upon  the  floor  of  the 
upper  hall,  the  folds  of  the  half-drawn  portiere  hang 
ing  in  the  doorway  between  the  parlor  and  dining 
room  moved,  and  Marie  stepped  into  sight. 

She  was  studying  in  the  front  parlor  when  Elspeth 


THE   ROYAL    ROAD.  149 

answered  the  door  bell  the  young  girl  had  not  heard. 
At  the  sound  of  her  uncle's  voice,  she  ran  behind  the 
curtain,  supposing  that  he  would,  as  was  his  custom, 
go  directly  upstairs.  Disappointed  in  this  expecta 
tion,  she  saw  no  impropriety  in  remaining  in  her 
hiding  place  while  the  talk  ran  upon  her  mother's 
health.  He  would,  undoubtedly,  go  to  see  his  sister 
as  soon  as  he  had  satisfied  himself  on  this  point.  He 
had  not  taken  a  seat,  and  the  interview  would  be 
brief  and  unimportant.  When  Elspeth  introduced 
her  own  (Marie's)  name,  and  entered  upon  her 
description  of  the  portrait-scene,  anger  and  shame 
paralyzed  the  eavesdropper.  Each  instant  made 
it  more  difficult  to  discover  herself;  presently  she 
ceased  to  think  of  doing  it. 

They  were  conspirators,  plotting  against  her  hap 
piness,  —  slanderers  of  him  whom  she  revered  and 
loved  beyond  all  other  created  things.  Self-preser 
vation,  and,  yet  more,  jealousy  for  her  father's 
honor  and  fair  fame,  incited  her  to  get  all  the  infor 
mation  she  could  collect,  by  any  means,  of  their 
dastardly  scheme.  In  asserting  that  she  was  Ernest 
Paull's  own  child  in  character  as  in  features,  her 
uncle  had  not  specified  among  the  traits  they  held  in 
common  a  vanity  so  sensitive  that  the  mother  had 
often  been  sick  at  heart  in  recognizing  the  offshoot 
of  a  stock  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  father  ever  to  be 
killed  out.  Mr.  Lanier's  criticisms  of  herself,  so 
much  more  disdainful  than  if  he  had  revealed  her 
faults  to  her  mother,  or  spoken  to  herself  of  them, 
stung  her  like  spatters  of  boiling  oil.  She  would 
have  flouted  hotly  the  insinuation  that  a  large  pro- 


150  THE   ROYAL   ROAD 

portion  of  the  resentment  that  carried  her  beyond 
the  bounds  of  reason  and  natural  affection  for  the 
mother  who  bore  her,  was  not  so  much  generous 
indignation  over  her  father's  wrongs  as  the  smart  of 
scarified  self-esteem. 

She  had  never  been  fond  of  her  Uncle  Roger, 
reflecting,  while  yet  a  child,  her  father's  sentiments 
toward  his  upright  and  stately  brother-in-law.  As 
she  gained  in  age  and  intelligence,  her  father  and 
she  exchanged  views  as  to  her  mother's  best-beloved 
relative,  and  she  sympathized  warmly  with  his 
wounded  pride  —  he  named  it  "  feeling  "  -  when  the 
terms  of  her  grandfather's  will  were  known.  Ernest 
Paull  was  always  consciously  or  mechanically  posing 
for  effect  in  one  character  or  another.  As  an  affec 
tionate  husband,  ready  and  glad  to  expend  his  worldly 
substance  for  his  family,  he  doubtless  sometimes 
imposed  upon  himself.  Marie's  belief  in  him  was 
absolute.  Roger  Lanier  was  sorely  tried  that  day, 
and  spoke  with  more  warmth  than  was  habitual  with 
him,  even  under  strong  provocation.  Judgment 
and  language  would  have  been  more  charitable  had 
he  been  given  more  time  in  which  to  digest  the 
information  sprung  upon  him  by  the  serving-woman. 
As  it  was,  he  carried  a  more  temperate  spirit  into 
his  sister's  presence.  Before  the  stairhead  was 
reached  he  would,  if  appealed  to,  have  modified  the 
sentence  hastily  pronounced  upon  a  young,  passion 
ate  creature,  whose  chief  fault  in  his  eyes  was  the 
resemblance,  for  which  she  was  not  responsible,  to 
the  man  he  abhorred. 

She    stood,   trembling   like    an    aspen,  her  palms 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  151 

pressed  hard  upon  her  temples,   her  eyes  wild,   her 
face  livid  from  the  storm  that  raged  in  her  soul. 

"I  don't  believe  it!  It  is  a  lie,  an  abominable, 
wicked,  wicked  lie ! "  she  hissed  through  locked 
teeth. 

Then,  hearing  Mrs.  Williams  coming  up  the 
kitchen  stairs,  she  dashed  up  to  her  room,  bolted 
the  door,  and  flung  herself,  face  downward,  upon  the 
floor,  clutching  fiercely  at  the  carpet  until  her  nails 
fastened  themselves  in  the  threads. 

"Papa,  papa,  my  wronged,  insulted,  persecuted 
darling !  "  she  moaned.  "  Oh,  I  could  kill  them ! 
I  could  kill  them  !  " 

At  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  she  entered  the 
post-office,  a  mile  and  more  from  her  home,  and 
asked  for  "a  French  stamp." 

"  I  beg  pardon,  miss !  "  said  the  clerk. 

"I  want  to  send  a  letter  to  Nice,  in  France,"  she 
answered,  coloring  as  she  felt  that  another  customer 
standing  beside  her  tamed  toward  her  at  the  words. 

"  Ah  !  "  Without  explanation  of  her  blunder,  the 
servant  employed  by  his  master,  the  Public,  to 
discharge  his  nominal  duties  with  the  slightest  pos 
sible  outlay  of  language  and  courtesy,  passed  over  a 
five-cent  stamp. 

"  Do  you  think  that  will  take  my  letter  all  right  ?  " 
faltered  the  novice,  doubtfully. 

"  Take  it  anywhere  on  the  globe. " 

She  affixed  it,  without  further  remark,  laying  the 
envelope  on  the  counter  to  do  it,  the  address  in 
bold  black  characters,  uppermost,  and  dropped  it 
into  the  slit  over  the  letter-basket. 


152  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

She  was  overtaken  at  the  outer  door  by  a  bright- 
faced,  dark-eyed  personage,  whose  apparel  and  speech 
bespoke  the  lady. 

"  I  beg  you  to  excuse  the  seeming  impertinence, 
but  am  I  mistaken  in  supposing  you  to  be  Miss 
Paull  ?  " 

"That  is  my  name,"  civilly  curt. 

Just  now  she  was  disposed  to  aggressiveness,  with 
or  without  provocation. 

"  Your  voice  is  so  like  your  mother's  that  it 
startled  me,  but  you  have  your  father's  face," 
resumed  the  stranger.  "  Your  mother  was  my  school 
mate  and  dear  friend.  I  am  Mrs.  Barnes.  I  heard 
yesterday,  for  the  first  time,  and  then  through  appar 
ent  accident,  that  she  is  living  in  Brooklyn,  quite 
near  us,  and  that  she  is  ill.  I  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  follow  you  when  T  heard  you  speak 
just  now,  and  caught  a  glimpse  of  your  face.  Will 
you  tell  me  exactly  how  she  is  to-day,  and  if  there 
is  any  way  in  which  I  can  be  of  service  to  her  ?  " 


CHAPTER  IX. 


For  patience,  —  when  the  rough  winds  blow  ; 

For  patience,  — when  our  hopes  are  fading; 
When  visible  things  all  backward  go, 

And  nowhere  seems  the  power  of  aiding,  — 
God  still  enfolds  thee  with  His  viewless  hand 
And  leads  thee  surely  to  the  fatherland. 

From  the  German. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

HE  who  knows  the  Pequod  New  Jersey  of 
to-day  has  but  an  imperfect  idea  of  what 
Pequod  township  was  at  the  date  of  which  I  am 
writing. 

Beautiful  for  situation  it  must  ever  have  been, 
since  the  hills  settled  upon  their  foundations,  and 
the  waters  found  their  level  at  the  foot  of  the  range 
of  hills.  Right  in  the  centre  of  the  valley  lies  a 
lakelet,  three  miles  in  length,  and  less  than  one 
mile  in  breadth  at  the  widest  part.  The  shores  are 
notched  boldly  by  headlands,  and  curved  graciously 
by  meadows,  and  grooved  at  intervals  by  reedy 
creeks,  and  brown  brisk  brooks  racing  down  from 
the  mountains  to  see  for  themselves  what  the  greater 
open  world  is  like.  Back  of  the  lake,  and  on  all 
sides  of  it,  are  the  hills,  — •  mountains,  the  New 
Jersey  folk  call  them,  —  proving  the  correctness  of 
the  nomenclature  by  reference  to  the  map  of  the 
United  States,  whereupon  they  figure  as  faintly  out 
lined  spurs  of  the  far-stretching  Blue  Ridge,  which 
forms  the  ribs  upon  the  right  side  of  our  continent. 
With  over-lapping  declivities,  these  eminences  en 
circled  Pequod  Lake,  an  Old  Guard  of  honor. 

They  are  friendly  mountains,  and  socially-minded 
toward  the  valley  they  environ.  In  benignant  swells 


156  THE   ROYAL   KOAD. 

and  dips  they  lie  against  the  sky,  looming  through 
mists,  and  sinking  to  sleep  under  the  stars.  At  the 
date  of  this  humble  chronicle,  they  were  the  boun 
dary  of  this  sparse  settlement  bearing  the  same  name 
as  the  lake  and  township. 

There  were  not  more  than  fifteen  dwellings  within 
sight  of  a  young  girl,  who  sat  one  June  forenoon 
upon  the  steps  of  a  church  set  well  toward  the  base 
of  the  tallest  wall  of  the  amphitheatre  of  hills.  The 
building  antedated  the  Revolutionary  War,  and, 
although  modern  vandalism  under  the  disguise  of 
improvement  had  done  its  best,  or  worst,  to  spoil  it 
by  daubing  with  white  paint  bricks  redbrown  with 
age,  it  was  still  a  creditable  specimen  of  colonial 
architecture.  It  stood  about  twenty  yards  away 
from  the  highway,  —  "  street, "  by  courtesy,  and  by 
virtue  of  definite,  if  unpaved  sidewalks.  Behind  the 
church  was  the  burying-ground,  better  kept  than  the 
majority  of  rural  cemeteries,  and  across  the  side- 
street  to  the  left  the  "Academy,"  alias  the  district 
schoolhouse,  the  junior  by  fifty  years  of  the  sanc 
tuary.  The  broad  thoroughfare  was  lined  with 
spreading  elms,  and,  sweeping  by  the  church  and  the 
white  parsonage,  nestled  confidingly  under  the  vener 
able  eaves,  divided  the  church  property  from  the 
grandest  house  in  the  township,  —  erected  by  a  re 
tired  city  merchant,  —  crossed  a  bridge  and  rolled 
along  a  hundred-yard  level,  ran  over  a  second  bridge 
built  above  one  of  the  racing  brooks  aforesaid,  then 
past  another  homestead  inferior  in  size,  and  superior 
in  age  to  the  former,  and,  swerving  slightly  to  the 
left,  had  an  easy  time  of  it  until  it  gained  a  third 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  157 

bridge,  which  carried  it  into  "  the  village, "  situated 
nearly  a  measured  mile  from  the  church.  A  woollen 
mill  made  the  village,  and  the  same  corporation  ran 
"  the  store  "  and  post-office. 

The  girl,  who  had  let  herself  down  wearily  in  the 
shade  cast  by  the  elms  upon  the  broad  low  step  of 
the  church,  was  Marie  Paull.  As  she  took  off  her 
straw  hat  and  fanned  herself  with  it,  one  could  see 
that  she  was  slighter  in  figure  and  more  ethereal  of 
visage  than  she  had  been  six  months  before.  The 
lines  of  cheek  and  chin  were  fine  to  delicacy;  the 
blue  eyes  were  larger  and  deeper ;  the  corners  of  the 
mouth  had  a  dispirited  droop.  Sanguine  observers 
foretold  that  she  would  pick  up  flesh  when  she 
stopped  growing.  She  had  "  run  up  like  a  mullein- 
stalk  or  a  hop-vine.  By-and-by  she  would  get  all 
her  perpendicular  inches,  and  go  to  work  to  make 
bone  and  flesh." 

Pessimistic  well-wishers  asked  solicitously  if  there 
were  consumption  in  any  branch  of  the  family,  and 
"only  hoped  that  she  might  weather  the  next  three 
years.  So  many  girls  went  out,  like  the  wick  of  an 
empty  lamp,  between  seventeen  and  twenty-one." 

The  change  in  her  appearance,  and  her  failure  in 
vigor  and  appetite,  together  with  the  hacking  cough 
that  wore  upon  Mrs.  PaulPs  vital  forces  after  she 
was  convalescent  from  fever,  were  the  alleged  causes 
of  the  removal  of  the  family  to  the  country  in  April. 
Roger  Lanier  had  come  into  possession,  in  the  way 
of  an  exchange  of  property,  of  an  old-fashioned 
farmstead  in  a  retired  neighborhood  of  Northern  New 
Jersey.  He  offered  it  to  his  sister,  rent  free,  for  as 


158  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

long  a  time  as  she  chose  to  occupy  it,  having,  as  he 
said,  no  use  for  it  himself,  and  preferring  to  put  a 
good  care-taker  into  it  to  troubling  himself  with  a 
farmer-tenant.  The  location  was  healthy.  It  was, 
by  stage  and  railway,  within  two  hours  of  New  York 
City.  For  some  years  to  come,  the  three  younger 
children  would  be  better  off  in  the  country. 

Mrs.  Paull  was  not  hoodwinked  by  the  dry,  busL 
ness-like  details  of  the  scheme  as  propounded  by  her 
brother.  She  was  too  familiar  with  his  style  of 
conferring  benefits  to  embarrass  him  by  voluble 
gratitude ;  but  when  he  had  gone,  she  secluded  her 
self  in  her  chamber  for  an  hour  before  she  could 
trust  countenance  or  voice  to  make  known  the  pur 
port  of  Roger's  visit  to  Marie. 

She  would  consult  the  child,  first  of  all,  in  the 
momentous  matter  of  a  change  of  home.  It  was  a 
golden  opportunity  for  breaking  down  the  thickening 
wall  of  reserve,  of  which  she  had  become  conscious 
by  the  time  she  left  her  bed,  and  endeavored  to  take 
her  old  place  in  the  household.  Indeed,  the  change 
in  the  once  merry,  affectionate  daughter,  whose 
graceful  development  she  had  watched  with  maternal 
pride,  was  the  means  of  awakening  her  from  the 
strange  numbness  of  brain  and  heart  considered  by 
physician  and  nurse  the  gravest  symptom  of  her 
malady. 

Marie's  very  features  were  altering  into  premature 
sedateness.  She  was  alternately  petulant  and 
moodily  reserved  when  she  was  not  feverishly  gay, 
and  as  the  weeks  wore  on,  had  an  air  of  nervous 
expectancy  unaccounted  for  by  any  clew  of  informa- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  159 

tion  or  of  suspicion  at  the  mother's  command  until 
Elspeth  offered  one. 

"  The  bairnie  is  mayhap  fretting  for  her  father, " 
she  felt  constrained  to  say  to  her  mistress,  lest  slie 
might  discover  the  secret  by  other  and  less  gentle 
means.  "  His  name  never  passes  her  lips,  and  I  'm 
thinking  that 's  a  sign  she  thinks  of  him  the  mair. " 

Marie  was  in  her  third  -story  room,  where  she  spent 
at  least  two-thirds  of  her  time  when  she  was  at  home. 
The  door  was  locked.  Elspeth  could  have  told  her 
how  common  an  occurrence  this  was,  but  her  mother 
was  surprised  when  her  knock  was  answered  by  the 
turn  of  the  key. 

"  Why  do  you  lock  yourself  in,  my  love  ?  "  she 
asked.  "  I  hope  the  children  do  not  annoy  you  by 
running  in  and  out  ?  I  have  charged  them  not  to 
disturb  you  when  you  are  busy  with  your  studies. " 

"  Oh,  no !  they  are  good  little  things,  and  never 
come  unless  they  are  called.  But  it  is  cosier  to  sit 
on  the  right  side  of  a  locked  door. " 

The  flippant  tone  and  studied  indifference  of  be 
havior  continued  while  her  mother  unfolded  the  par 
ticulars  of  the  news  she  had  brought,  until,  out  of  the 
fulness  of  her  gratitude,  she  dwelt  upon  her  brother's 
generosity. 

"  He  intends,  he  says,  to  put  the  house  in  perfect 
repair,  to  have  a  furnace  built  in  the  cellar,  and  a 
bath-room  in  the  second  story,  and  hot  and  cold 
water  throughout  the  house.  All  this,  he  would  have 
me  believe,  is  not  contingent  upon  our  removal  to 
Pequod,  but  I  know  better.  There  will  not  be 
another  dwelling  in  the  region  so  luxuriously 


160  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

appointed.  That  is  Uncle  Roger's  way.  He  dreads 
being  thanked  as  much  as  ever  Mr.  Jarndyce  could 
have  dreaded  acknowledgments.  I  anticipate  your 
scruples  in  this  matter,  my  darling.  You  feel  with 
me  that  we  are  already  under  such  heavy  obligations 
to  your  uncle  —  surely  the  noblest,  tenderest  coun 
sellor  ever  given  to  a  woman  in  the  hour  of  need ! 
—  that  you  hesitate  to  make  further  draughts  upon 
his  goodness." 

Marie  smiled  sarcastically. 

"  On  the  contrary,  mother,  I  have  no  scruples  on 
that  score.  You  have  read  me  wrong  for  once. 
Uncle  Roger  is  a  pattern  of  truthfulness,  as  of 
liberality.  When  he  declares  that  he  is  spending 
some  thousands  of  the  money  he  does  not  know  what 
to  do  with  upon  a  new  toy  for  his  own  personal  grati 
fication,  without  a  thought  of  pauperizing  us,  we 
are  bound  to  believe  him.  As  to  our  share  in  his 
project,  I  cannot  understand  why  you  should  go 
through  the  form  of  consulting  me.  While  I  am  a 
minor  and  dependent  upon  you, — and  Uncle  Roger, — 
I  am  at  your  disposal,  to  come  or  to  go,  or  to  stay,  as 
you  shall  decide.  One  place  is  as  good  as  another 
to  me,  since  we  cannot  go  back  to  New  York  to  live. 
I  cannot  dislike  this  country  place  with  an  Indian 
name  more  than  1  dislike  Brooklyn.  I  suppose  we 
cannot  go  into  society  anywhere.  So  what  differ 
ence  does  it  make  what  I  say  or  think  or  feel,  when 
you  and  Elspeth  and  Uncle  Roger  are  adequate  to 
manage  everything  ?  " 

"You  misjudge  me  and  your  uncle,"  returned  Mrs. 
Paull,  with  no  sign  of  the  cruel  pain  this  reception 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  161 

of  her  story  had  cost  her.  "  If  I  did  not  believe  that 
your  health  would  be  improved  by  the  removal  to 
higher,  drier  air,  and  by  the  outdoor  life  you  could 
enjoy  in  Pequod,  all  the  other  considerations  you 
have  named  would  have  no  weight  with  me.  As  to 
my  advisers,  we  will  leave  our  faithful  Elspeth  out 
of  the  question  entirely.  She  does  not  deserve  to 
be  introduced  into  such  a  connection.  While  I 
depend  upon  your  uncle  in  business  affairs,  as  he  has 
given  me  abundant  reason  for  doing,  1  am  strong 
enough  to  trust  to  my  own  judgment  in  whatever 
concerns  my  children  and  my  home  and  theirs.  You 
ought  not  to  require  me  to  assure  you  of  that." 

Marie  was  cold  and  still;  her  eyes  were  downcast; 
her  lips  were  a  straight,  stubborn  line. 

The  mother's  voice  changed  from  argument  to 
entreaty. 

"  What  has  come  between  us  lately,  my  daughter  ? 
We  used  to  be  dear  and  intimate  friends,  who  be 
lieved  in  each  other's  affection,  and  trusted  each 
other's  motives.  What  have  I  done  to  grieve  or  to 
alienate  you  ?  " 

Another  long  dumb  interval,  growing  more 
oppressive  as  the  seconds  ticked  themselves  into 
minutes  upon  the  tiny  clock  upon  the  desk.  Marie 
had  wheeled  her  chair  around  to  receive  her  mother, 
and  sat  under  her  father's  portrait.  The  tear-vase, 
with  its  spray  of  purple  heliotrope,  was  in  its  place, 
lightly  perfuming  the  air  of  the  room.  A  pale 
purple  scarf  of  soft  silk,  given  to  Marie  at  Christ 
mas,  was  knotted  across  one  corner  of  the  gilded 
frame. 

11 


162  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Suddenly  the  girl  raised  her  eyes  abruptly,  light  in 
them  that  confounded  her  companion  as  they  blazed 
into  hers,  then  passed  to  the  portrait  hanging  between 
them. 

The  handsome,  sunny  face,  with  the  crowning  curls 
and  golden  chestnut  mustache,  and  half-smile  of 
content  with  himself  and  good-will  toward  his 
fellow-men  that  won  his  way  everywhere,  • —  the  lover 
of  Alice  Lanier's  gloriously  happy  girlhood,  the 
husband  she  had  idolized,  now  the  banned  refugee 
from  her,  and  home,  and  native  land! 

Without  the  utterance  of  a  syllable,  the  daughter 
arraigned  one  parent  for  irreparable  wrong  done  to 
the  other. 

"  You  affect  ignorance  of  your  offence  against  me ! " 
said  feature  and  gesture.  "  Can  you  answer  to  me, 
his  child  and  yours,  for  what  you  have  done  to  him  ?  " 

For  an  instant  Mrs.  Paull  was  deathly  white.  Her 
features  were  sharpened,  and  the  dull,  hopeless 
misery  was  again  in  her  eyes.  The  next,  she  rallied 
her  native  powers,  and  her  glance  followed  Marie's 
to  the  pictured  face. 

"  I  will  not  pretend  to  misunderstand  you,  although 
I  could  have  wished  that  the  charge  had  been  brought 
out  in  a  different  way.  You  would  accuse  me  of 
injustice  to  your  father,  and  unkindness  to  you, 
because  I  do  not  talk  of  him  to  you  and  the  children, 
or  give  you  any  news  of  him.  Perhaps  I  have  erred 
in  my  silence.  My  brother  thinks  so.  Had  I  been 
led  as  blindly  by  him  as  you  intimate,  you  would 
have  had  the  whole  story  before  this;  but  I  hoped 
that  you  had  faith  in  your  mother's  love.  I  wished 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  163 

to  spare  you  pain,  and  there  are  things  which  it  is 
not  easy  for  me  to  say  to  any  one.  Your  father 
loved  you  very  dearly  —  " 

"If  it  gives  you  pain  to  tell  me  that,  you  may 
leave  it  unsaid ! "  interrupted  harsh,  husky  accents. 
"  I  know  it  better,  —  a  thousand  times  better  than 
you  can  ever  tell  me.  He  said  to  me,  —  and  I  would 
believe  him  in  opposition  to  all  the  canting  uncles 
in  Christendom,  —  he  said  the  last  time  I  saw  him 
that  I  was  the  dearest  thing  to  him  on  earth  or  in 
heaven.  How  that  would  shock  Uncle  Roger!  I 
never  told  you ;  I  shall  never  tell  your  brother  that 
my  father  came  to  see  me  that  Thursday  evening 
and  said  '  Good-by  '  to  me.  He  expected  then  to  go 
to  New  Orleans  the  next  day  on  business,  —  business 
that  worried  him  exceedingly.  He  took  me  in  his 
arms  and  kissed  rne  twenty  times,  and  asked  me 
never  to  believe  anything  his  enemies  might  bring 
up  against  him  when  he  was  not  here  to  defend  him 
self.  He  had  battled  a  long  time  with  them,  he  said, 
and  they  might  get  the  better  of  him  for  a  while, 
but  I  was  never  to  doubt  his  innocence  or  his  love 
for  me,  never !  never ! " 

Her  vehemence  did  not  lessen  the  fond  compassion 
with  which  her  mother  looked  at  her  defiant  face. 

"  You  say  that  this  was  on  Thursday,  —  the  21st  of 
November  ?  " 

"  It  was.  I  came  home  on  Saturday,  my  heart  so 
full  of  grief  and  wonder  that  I  would  have  rushed 
up  to  tell  you  all  and  cry  myself  quiet  in  your  arms, 
and  found  you  ill. " 

"  He  said  that  he  was  setting  out  for  New  Orleans  ?  " 


164  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  He  did.     He  was  dressed  for  travelling  then. " 

"  Yet  his  passage  was  already  taken  for  Havre. 
Have  you  ever  thought  to  compare  statement  and 
fact  ?  " 

"No.  I  had  his  word,  which  was  absolute  truth 
to  me.  Something  unforeseen  changed  his  plans. 
I  suppose  you  know  what.  His  passage  must — it  was 
taken  after  he  saw  me.  He  said  —  oh,  so  sadly, 
mamma !  —  that  you  often  misjudged  him,  and 
undervalued  his  love ;  that  the  day  would  come  when 
you  would  see  that  you  were  mistaken,  and  maybe 
regret  the  devotion  you  had  thrown  away.  He 
longed  to  know  that  he  had  the  love  of  one  true 
heart,  and  so  came  to  me ;  I  would  never  desert  him. 
1  promised  solemnly,  my  arms  about  his  neck,  his 
dear  cheek  (there  were  tears  on  it,  mamma !)  against 
mine,  that  I  would  always  love  him  and  believe  in 
him,  and  no  cunning  slanders  that  other  people  may 
persuade  you  into  crediting  will  ever  make  me  break 
my  word.  If  he  were  to  send  for  me  to-morrow  to 
come  to  him  at  the  ends  of  the  earth,  I  would  go,  if 
I  had  to  steal  the  money  to  take  me  there.  I  would 
rather  starve  with  him  than  live  in  luxury  upon 
Uncle  Roger's  money ! "  cried  the  child,  terrible, 
dry  sobs  breaking  up  the  torrent  of  confession. 

She  sat  erect,  her  fingers  interlocked  upon  the 
desk,  and  talked  fast,  blood  and  brain  at  fever  heat. 

"My  poor,  loyal  darling!"  With  tears  running 
down  her  own  cheeks,  Mrs.  Paull  would  have  drawn 
her  child  to  her,  but  Marie  eluded  the  embrace  by 
setting  her  chair  further  away.  "  My  love !  do  you 
imagine  that  what  you  have  said  can  make  your 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  165 

mother  love  you  less  ?  If  anything  could  draw  a 
man  to  his  home  and  hold  him  there,  it  would  be 
such  devotion  and  such  faith  as  yours.  Wherever 
your  father  may  be,  —  and  Marie,  you  must  believe 
me  when  I  say  that  I  have  not  had  one  line  from  him 
since  he  wrote  to  your  uncle  on  the  day  he  sailed 
from  America,  saying  that  he  was  obliged  by  busi 
ness  misfortunes  to  go  abroad,  —  wherever  and 
whatever  he  may  be  —  " 

"  He  is  the  purest  and  noblest  of  men,  always  and 
everywhere ! " 

"  I  do  not  contradict  it,  dear.  I  was  about  to  say 
that  I  hope  and  pray  he  may  always  remember  how 
his  daughter  loves  him.  For  myself,  I  have  no 
complaint  to  make  in  his  children's  ears.  I  have 
insisted  upon  this  to  your  uncle  — 

"  My  uncle !  "  broke  in  Marie,  fiercely.  "  My 
uncle,  who  is  rich  enough  to  rectify  any  '  business 
misfortunes  '  my  father  could  have  met  with,  with 
out  feeling  it,  the  purse-proud  Pharisee  who  cheats 
him  out  of  the  first  place  in  his  wife's  affections  — 

"My  daughter!" 

"  I  mean  it ;  every  word  of  it !  And  drives  him 
out  of  the  country  that  he  may  the  better  blacken  his 
good  name.  The  high-bred  gentleman,  who  stoops 
to  gossip  with  sympathizing  servant-women  over  the 
ruin  he  has  caused.  Oh,  how  I  loathe  that  man's 
very  name,  and  his  sneering  smile  and  plausible 
lies ! " 

"Marie!  shame!" 

She  raved  on. 

"  Shame !  yes !  to  him  for  saying  such  things,  and 


166  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

to  Elspeth  for  listening  to  him,  and  to  you  for  not 
turning  both  of  them  out  of  your  house,  instead  of 
believing  their  horrible  slanders  !  No,  mother !  you 
have  complained  of  my  reserve,  and  I  shall  leave 
you  without  excuse  for  finding  any  such  fault  again 
with  me.  I  am  a  Paull,  through  and  through,  and 
there  is  no  hypocrisy  in  that  strain.  If  I  knew  in 
what  vein  of  mine  runs  the  Lanier  blood,  I  would 
cut  it  this  minute,  and  let  the  false  black  drops  out, 
—  here,  before  the  blessed  angel's  picture  !  It  would 
be  a  sweet  savor  in  his  nostrils  if  he  could  know 
that  I  had  done  it ! " 

She  laughed  wildly,  as  the  listener,  aghast,  raised 
her  hands  imploringly.  There  was  unholy  triumph 
in  the  mirth.  In  the  defenceless  woman  before  her 
she  saw  the  impersonation  of  the  evil  influences 
that  had  ruined  and  exiled  her  father. 

"$)on't stare  and  gasp  as  if  you  believed  me  crazy! 
I  have  my  father's  head,  and  I  can  think  out  things 
without  Mr.  Roger  Lanier's  assistance.  I  know  just 
how  it  all  happened.  My  father,  always  generous 
and  trusting  to  his  own  hurt,  wanted  to  borrow 
money  of  his  rich  brother-in-law,  who  had  prevailed 
upon  his  father  (and  yours)  to  leave  all  your  property 
in  your  dear  brother's  hands ;  and  the  immaculate 
Roger  would  not  lend  him  a  dollar,  although  aware 
how  cruelly  crippled  were  his  finances,  and  hunted 
him  into  exile.  Or  perhaps  he  was  obliged  to  go 
away  from  unmerciful  creditors;  and  when  he  was 
gone,  Mr.  Millionnaire  Lanier,  to  cover  up  his  own 
crooked  dealings  and  inhumanity,  fabricated  a  story 
which  I  would  not  believe  if  all  the  Laniers  who 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  167 

ever  lived  were  to  swear  to  it  on  a  pile  of  Bibles  as 
high  as  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  !  " 

"  God  give  me  patience !  "  murmured  the  unhappy 
mother,  rising  so  feebly  that  had  not  her  child  been 
half-frenzied,  she  must  have  been  moved  to  pity. 

Instead,  the  perverse  devil  that  was  driving  her 
onward  prompted  a  final  thrust.  She  became  all 
at  once  apparently  as  cool  as  she  had  been  hot. 

"So,  you  see,  mother,"  also  rising,  and  assuming 
a  judicial  air  that  pierced  the  wife  with  a  new  sense 
of  familiarity,  so  faithfully  was  it  copied  from  her 
father,  "you  are  wasting  your  time  and  strength  in 
trying  to  bring  me  around  to  my  dear  relative's 
ways  of  thinking  in  anything.  If  he  has  set  his 
heart  upon  hiding  his  poor  relations  in  the  country 
where  they  will  not  disgrace  him  and  his  fine-lady 
wife,  why,  he  will  do  it.  Where  is  the  use  of  my 
opposing  him  ?  On  the  side  of  the  oppressor,  there 
is  power.  I  am  amazed  at  discovering  that  he  has  a 
vulnerable  place  left  in  his  conscience,  and  can  be 
made  uncomfortable  by  the  sight  of  his  victims.  I 
am  glad  that  my  face  reminds  him  of  the  man  he  has 
injured. 

"  We  need  never  go  all  over  this  ground  again, 
mother,  now  that  we  have  had  it  all  out.  By  all 
means,  let  Uncle  Roger  salve  his  conscience  with  fur 
naces  and  water-works,  and  all  the  other  luxuries  he 
may  choose  to  put  into  his  farmhouse.  Unless  my 
father  should  send  for  me,  or  gives  me  other  orders, 
I  must,  for  propriety's  sake,  live  in  your  house  until 
I  can  support  myself,  which  will  be  in  a  couple  of 
years  at  the  farthest.  I  had  a  talk  with  Mrs.  Marcy 


168  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

yesterday,  in  which  she  promised  that  she  would 
make  a  place  for  me  in  the  primary  department  by 
the  time  I  am  graduated." 

There  are  but  two  classes  of  beings  in  civilized 
society  whom  one  may  maltreat  with  a  refinement 
of  barbarity  without  fear  of  reprisals.  These  are 
mothers  and  wives.  Ernest  Paull  had  discovered  for 
himself  this  cardinal  truth.  The  instinct  of  hered 
ity  had  revealed  it  to  his  daughter,  and  his  teachings 
emboldened  her  to  avail  herself  of  it.  When  anger 
had  burned  down,  she  could  create  sparkles  among 
the  ashes  by  reminding  herself  that  he  was  partially 
avenged. 

Decidedly,  Alice  Paull  had  enough  pressing  upon 
her  shoulders  and  spirit  to  drive  her  into  her  grave, 
or  into  a  mad-house,  by  April  15,  the  day  on  which 
she  turned  the  key  for  the  last  time  in  No.  363 
Mendebras  Avenue,  and  departed  with  Elspeth  and 
the  two  boys,  —  Gladys  being  left  with  Mrs.  Lanier, 
-  to  unpack  and  settle  her  household  goods  in  the 
rambling  homestead,  red-brick  in  front  and  back, 
rough,  hewn  stone  at  the  gable  ends,  upon  the  western 
bank  of  Pequod  Lake. 

Marie's  vacation  had  begun  a  week  before  the  long 
walk  that  stranded  her  upon  the  church  steps. 

Elspeth  would  have  it  that  she  had  studied  herself 
pale  and  thin,  and  built  many  hopes  upon  the  system 
of  feeding  and  general  bracing  that  must  go  into 
effect,  now  that  books  were  laid  aside  for  two  months 
and  a  half.  The  "puir  bairnie  "  must  walk,  row, 
and  drive  abroad  in  air  which  the  Highland-born 
woman  sniffed  eagerly  as  "a'maist  as  sweet  and 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  169 

strang  "  as  that  of  her  native  heaths.  Accordingly, 
errands  were  manufactured  for  her  by  the  score. 
There  were  wild  strawberries  to  be  gathered,  wild 
flowers  to  be  transplanted  into  the  garden,  and  fish 
to  be  caught  for  the  table.  Mrs.  Paull  had  found  in 
the  stable,  upon  her  arrival,  a  stout  roadster,  young 
enough  to  be  lively  and  good-looking,  and  old  enough 
to  be  well-broken  and  safe,  and  a  neat,  light  car 
riage;  and  after  Marie's  arrival,  she  was  elected 
charioteer-in-chief. 

She  listened  with  a  smile  —  always  joyless,  some 
times  sadder  than  tears  —  to  the  various  schemes  for 
luring  back  light  and  color  to  her  thin  face.  She 
was  willing  to  try  them  all,  she  said  obediently,  but 
proposed  none  of  her  own  accord,  with  a  single 
exception. 

She  walked,  unbidden,  every  morning  down  the  two 
hills  grading  the  half-mile  slope  lying  between  the 
hillside  farmhouse  and  the  village  post-office.  She 
had  to-day  taken  quite  a  batch  of  letters  with  other 
mail  from  the  freckled  hand  of  the  social  young- 
clerk,  who  inquired,  in  giving  it,  if  her  folks  kept 
pretty  well.  She  sorted  the  "mail"  hastily  in  the 
long  porch  of  the  "  store. " 

Three  letters  for  her  mother,  —  one  in  Uncle 
Roger's  handwriting;  one  with  a  New  York  grocer's 
letter-head  upon  the  envelope  for  Elspeth;  one  for 
herself  from  Lariier,  and  one  other,  which  she  tore 
open  hastily. 

Four  pages  were  covered  with  the  fiercely  pro 
nounced  chirography  peculiar  to  some  fifty  thou- 
sand-and-odd  young  women  of  the  modern  school, 


170  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

and  which,  until  this  fact  is  recognized,  leaves  one 
unprepared  for  the  very  small  beer  of  ladylike 
correspondence. 

Marie  did  not  pause  to  read  it.  A  glance  showed 
her  that  the  envelope  contained  nothing  besides  this 
epistle  from  Carrie  Storrs,  her  bosom  friend  and 
classmate  at  Mrs.  Marcy's  school.  She  tucked  it 
back  into  the  cover,  dropped  it  with  the  rest  of  the 
letters,  the  daily  paper  and  a  magazine,  into  the  flat 
satchel  on  her  arm,  and  instead  of  going  home,  set 
off  at  a  swift  gait  across  the  bridge  and  up  the  broad 
highway  beyond.  It  was  shadeless  for  a  quarter  of 
a  mile,  but  the  city-bred  girl  did  not  raise  her  para 
sol.  The  air  breathed  freely  over  acres  of  hay- 
meadows  and  corn-fields,  and  there  were  no  brick 
walls  to  absorb  and  radiate  heat. 

She  did  not  heed  or  care  whither  her  brisk  pace 
would  take  her. 


CHAPTER   X. 


The  humblest  occupation  has  in  it  materials  of  dis 
cipline  for  the  highest  heaven.  —  F.  W.  ROBERTSON. 

Dear  Comforter  !  Eternal  Love  ! 

If  thou  wilt  stay  with  me, 
Of  lowly  thoughts  and  simple  ways 

I  '11  build  a  nest  for  thee. 

FABEB. 


CHAPTER   X. 

STORRS  was  the  one  confidante  of  the 
tremendous  secret  that  Marie  Paull  had  been 
trying,  since  the  middle  of  last  December,  to  open 
communication  with  her  father.  She  had  easily 
convinced  her  friend  that  Ernest  Paull  was  foully 
maligned  by  his  enemies,  and  persecuted  by  his 
relations-in-law.  In  each  of  the  letters  Marie  had 
despatched,  at  first  hopefully,  of  late  desperately, 
to  "Mr.  Paul  Morgan,  Nice,  France,"  she  had  in 
structed  her  father  to  reply  under  cover  to  Carrie, 
whose  parents  were  too  well  disciplined,  according  to 
free  American  ethics,  to  inquire  into  their  daugh 
ter's  correspondence.  Not  a  line  had  rewarded  her 
filial  fidelity;  yet  the  sight  of  Carrie's  handwrit 
ing  upon  the  outside  of  an  envelope  would  set  her 
pulses  to  galloping  and  check  her  breath  until 
inspection  of  the  contents  brought  a  sickening  revul 
sion  of  feeling. 

As  she  had  walked  down  the  hemlock-and-cedar- 
shaded  road  to  the  post-office,  twenty  minutes  ago,  — 
the  lake  on  one  side,  the  woods  upon  the  other,  the 
plunge  of  the  waters  at  the  lower  end  of  the  pretty 
sheet  over  a  thirty-feet-high  dam,  booming  upon  the 
rocks  that  threshed  them  into  clouds  of  fleecy  spray, 
—  an  inspiration,  as  refreshing  as  the  cool  breath  of 


174  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

the  falls  and  the  spicy  incense  of  the  evergreens, 
had  stolen  into  her  soul. 

She  recalled  bitterly  in  her  wayside  musings  the 
stages  of  her  lapse  from  exaltation  to  despondency. 
For  one  quarter  of  an  hour  she  had  permitted  her 
self  to  feel  sure  that  to-day's  mail  would  yield  up 
for  her  the  news  from  a  far  country  for  which  she 
really  believed  she  was  slowly  pining  to  death. 
While  she  waited  in  the  dark,  low-browed  "store," 
redolent  with  soap,  cheese,  brown  sugar  and  molasses, 
new  shoes,  new  woollen  and  new  ginghams,  — 
watching,  with  interest  that  flattered  the  clerk,  the 
freckled  fingers  that  manipulated  the  contents  of  the 
mail-bag, — the  hope  assumed  the  proportions  of 
certainty.  The  clerk  was  airily  arrayed  in  dust- 
colored  corduroy  trousers  and  a  loose  linen  coat  of 
indescribable  hue;  his  hair  would  have  been  exactly 
the  color  of  ground  ginger  had  it  been  less  heavily 
greased.  It  hung  straight  behind,  and  was  parted 
so  low  upon  the  left  side  that  the  comb  laying  out 
the  line  must  have  grazed  the  hem  of  his  prominent 
red  ear.  His  hands  were  red,  too,  where  the 
great  brown  freckles  let  out  glimpses  of  the  back 
ground;  his  fingers  were  stubby,  with  square  tips 
and  flat  nails  edged  with  black. 

She  noticed  all  these  things  as  senses,  over 
strained  by  excitement,  become  sensitized  plates  for 
the  repetition  of  the  minutest  particular  of  environ 
ment.  She  recollected  that  she  had  prayed  with 
especial  fervor,  at  rising  that  morning,  for  the  com 
ing  of  the  letter.  For  one  second  her  fingers  tingled 
prophetically  in  closing  upon  Carrie's  envelope. 


THE    ROYAL   ROAD.  175 

It,  was  all  over  now !  As  she  forged  up  the 
shadeless  turnpike,  she  registered  a  mental  vow  never 
to  let  herself  be  sanguine  again  in  expectatipn  of  the 
coveted  good.  It  was  a  daily  death.  By  the  time 
she  reached  the  elm-shadowed  portion  of  the  road, 
she  had  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  it  would  be 
folly  to  commit  any  more  bread  to  the  waste  of  un 
known  waters.  If  her  father  had  cared  to  hear  from 
her,  why  had  not  he,  ready-witted  as  he  was,  de 
vised  some  method  of  communication  ?  Could  there 
be  a  minute  grain  of  truth  in  the  version  of  his  flight 
so  coarsely  retailed  by  Uncle  Roger  to  Elspeth  ? 

This,  the  first  doubt  of  him  that  had  ever  assailed 
her,  fairly  beat  the  breath  out  of  her  lungs,  the  light 
out  of  her  eyes.  She  felt  herself  grow  sick  and 
giddy,  — a  leaf  in  a  whirlwind  of  horror  and  despair. 
Then  it  was  that  she  groped,  rather  than  saw  her 
way  to  the  broad  stone  step,  and  sank  down. 

She  sat  there  so  still  that  the  phoebe-birds,  whose 
forbears  had  for  many  generations  built  mud  nests  in 
the  church  tower,  hopped  upon  the  stones  within 
arm's-length  of  her  to  peck  the  crumbs  dropped 
yesterday  by  the  school -children  who  had  come 
across  from  the  academy  at  recess  to  eat  their  lunch 
in  the  shade. 

She  sat  there  so  long  that  a  child,  playing  in  the 
parsonage  garden,  after  staring  at  her,  himself 
unperceived,  until  his  nose  took  the  impress  of  the 
two  palings  between  which  it  had  protruded,  ran  in 
to  report  to  his  mother  upon  the  pretty  lady  who  had 
gone  to  sleep  upon  the  church  steps. 

She  moved  stiffly  at  last;  her  head  was  light;  her 


176  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

tongue  had  a  queer,  rough  taste,  as  if  she  had  been 
dosed  with  calisaya  or  quassia.  Automatically  she 
fumbled  in  her  satchel  for  Lanier's  letter.  She  was 
not  nearly  rested  yet.  When  she  should  be  she 
must  go  home.  It  was  getting  on  toward  noon.  She 
would  not  think  any  longer.  Thinking  only  made 
her  pain  the  harder  to  bear  and  did  no  good.  For 
six  months  one  idea  had  been  the  centre  about  which 
thought,  affection,  desire,  and  hope  had  revolved. 
She  had  fixed  her  eyes  upon  it  until,  when  she  tried 
to  force  them  away,  she  saw  nothing  but  whirling 
darkness  everywhere  else.  Yet  she  had  resolved  to 
hope  and  expect  no  longer.  In  very  idleness  of 
misery  she  would  see  wha,t  Lanier  had  to  say.  She 
loved  her  brother,  but  there  was  little  sympathy 
between  them  nowadays.  She  had  not  seen  him 
since  Christmas,  and  then  he  was  as  plainly  averse  to 
speaking  of  the  altered  conditions  of  their  home  as 
even  Uncle  Roger  could  desire.  All  his  thought 
seemed  to  be  centred  in  their  mother.  He  had  not 
remarked  upon  his  sister's  dejection  and  reserve*, 
probably  he  had  not  observed  them.  That  was  another 
debt  she  owed  to  Uncle  Roger.  But  he  wrote  enter 
taining  letters,  — •  full  of  college  news. 

Instead  of  drawing  out  a  sealed  envelope,  she  had 
lighted  again  upon  Carrie's.  She  opened  it  indiffer 
ently.  Carrie's  affluence  of  spirits  jarred  upon  her 
friend  occasionally.  She  carried  no  cross  of  personal 
sorrow  and  others'  misfortunes. 

The  opening  paragraph  of  the  unfolded  letter  set 
her  teeth  together  as  might  the  scratch  of  a  pin  upon 
glass. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  177 

MY  MARY-BUD,  —  Open  your  pretty  eyes  and  read 
what  a  transcendently  delightful,  and  yet  comical,  hap 
pening  has  come  to  me.  I  cannot  wait  a  minute  longer 
without  calling  upon  you  to  admire  the  cleverness  of  your 
usually-ever-so-rnuch-less-bright-than-yourself  friend  and 
admirer. 

Mr.  Maynard,  a  friend  of  papa's,  dined  here  this  even 
ing,  and  he  and  papa  were  speaking  of  the  appointment 
of  "  Dick  Oliver  "  as  United  States  Consul  at  Nice.  Of 
course  I  pricked  up  my  ears,  and  when  there  was  a  gap 
in  the  talk,  I  put  in  an  oar. 

"  Papa,  what  are  the  duties  of  a  consul  ?  " 

"  To  see  that  national  interests  are  protected  in  foreign 
towns,  Puss." 

"  What,  for  instance,  could  Mr.  Oliver  do  for  me  if  I 
were  in  Nice  ?  "  was  my  next  advance. 

"  If  you  got  into  any  trouble,  or  needed  any  informa 
tion,  he  would  help  you  out." 

"  Suppose,  then,  I  had  run  away  from  home,  and  was 
living  in  Nice,  and  calling  myself  '  Sarah  Jane  Johnson/ 
and  you  wanted  to  ferret  me  out,  could  he  find  me  for 
you  ?  " 

Well,  they  all  laughed,  and  papa  said  I  was  a  goose ; 
but  in  the  end  I  found  out  what  I  wanted  to  know.  The 
thing  for  you  to  do  is  to  direct  your  next  foreign  letter 
in  care  of  "Mr.  Eichard  Hurst  Oliver,  U.  S.  Consul, 
Nice,  France,"  and  put  in  it  a  note  to  Mr.  Oliver,  asking 
him  to  see  that  it  reaches  the  person  to  whom  it  is 
addressed,  etc.,  etc. 

When  both  these  letters  are  written,  enclose  them  to 
me,  and  let  me  mail  them  in  New  York.  Country  post 
masters  are  the  veriest  gossips  everywhere,  and  the 
official  at  Pequod  (horrid  name  !  why  is  n't  it  Avondale, 
or  Kosemont,  or  Cedar  Gorge  ?)  will  have  it  all  over  the 

12 


178  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

neighborhood  that  "  that  eldest  girl  o'  the  Paulls  sent  off 
a  furren  letter  to-day."  Of  course  the  reply  (you  '11  be 
sure  to  get  it  now,  my  beauty !)  will  be  enclosed  to  me. 

I  rush  this  off  that  you  may  get  it  by  to-morrow's 
mail.  Ever  and  forever  yours,  ' 

CARRIE. 

"  Excuse  me,  but  can  I  be  of  any  service  to  you  ?  " 

Marie  had  sat  motionless  for  ten  rapturous  min 
utes,  her  elbows  upon  her  knees,  her  forehead  upon 
her  hands,  tears,  of  which  she  was  unconscious, 
falling  upon  the  letter  in  her  lap.  She  flushed  rosily 
at  the  query,  uttered  in  a  pleasant,  manly  voice,  her 
startled  eyes,  large  with  happy  dew,  were  lifted  to 
the  countenance  of  a  man  in  a  strait-breasted  black 
coat,  who  had  approached  unheard  across  the  turf. 
It  was  a  genial  visage,  with  regular,  refined  features, 
and  she  knew  him  for  a  clergyman  before  he  added: 

"  I  am  Mr.  Morse,  the  pastor  of  this  church.  My 
wife  saw  you  sitting  here,  and  feared  that  you  were 
ill,  or  that  you  had  lost  your  way.  Will  you  step 
into  the  parsonage  and  rest,  or,  as  I  am  just  going 
out  in  my  buggy,  will  you  allow  me  to  take  you 
home?" 

Marie  arose,  self-possessed  and  ladylike.  In  her 
lately-born  happiness  she  showed  at  her  best,  and 
she  had  inherited  much  of  her  father's  magnetic 
charm  of  manner. 

"  You  are  very  kind,  but  I  am  quite  rested  now. 
I  have  walked  a  little  too  far  in  the  hot  sun,  I  think. 
I  am  Marie  Paull,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Paull,  who 
has  taken  the  house  on  the  other  side  of  the  lake. 
She  has  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  you  preach 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  179 

several  times,  I  think.  I  have  just  come  home 
from  my  school  in  New  York." 

The  frank  reply  pleased  and  attracted  Jiim.  He 
held  out  his  hand,  and  removed  his  hat. 

"  I  am  happy  to  meet  you,  and  esteem  it  a  fortu 
nate  coincidence  that  I  was  just  setting  out  to  call 
upon  Mrs.  Paull.  Will  it  be  convenient  for  her  to 
receive  a  visit  in  the  forenoon  ?  " 

"  She  will  be  glad  to  see  you  at  any  hour  of  the 
day,  Mr.  Morse,  and  I  accept  gratefully  the  offer  of  a 
seat  in  your  carriage,  if  you  are  really  going  to 
call  upon  my  mother." 

She  was  like  the  Marie  Paull  of  bygone  days  in 
the  radiance  and  warmth  of  her  new  hope. 

"A  thorough  little  lady  from  crown  to  toe!"  Mr. 
Morse  informed  his  wife  when  he  went  around  to 
the  side-door  of  the  parsonage  for  his  carriage  and 
horse,  Marie  preferring  to  await  his  return  at  the 
church.  "Judging  from  her  behavior  and  from  the 
mother's  appearance,  the  family  will  be  an  acquisi 
tion  to  the  church  and  to  the  neighborhood. " 

Mrs.  Paull  had  held  long  and  weighty  counsel  with 
Elspeth  while  Marie  was  absent  that  morning. 

To  not  more  than  one  housewife  in  one  hundred 
thousand  is  it  appointed  to  be  served  as  long  and 
faithfully  as  this  woman  was  by  the  sturdy  High 
lander.  Without  demur,  or  so  much  as  the  deepen 
ing  of  a  furrow  in  a  forehead  criss-crossed  by  years 
of  care-taking  for  others,  she  had  gathered  up  such 
"stuff  "  as  she  could  call  her  own,  and  followed  the 
family  into  a  region  as  unknown  to  her  as  the 
promised  land  to  Abraham.  Country  housekeeping 


180  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

was  a  vastly  different  matter  then  than  in  this  era, 
when  hot  and  cold  water,  stationary  tubs,  bath-rooms, 
and  gasoline  are  insisted  upon  as  essentials  of  "  our 
girls'  "  existence,  in  rural  districts  as  in  the  city. 

Elspeth's  kitchen  occupied,  with  her  chamber 
overhead,  a  whole  wing  of  the  old  farmstead.  By 
Mr.  Lanier's  orders,  a  modern  range  was  set  into 
the  wide  fireplace,  but  the  brick  oven  still  yawned 
in  the  wall  to  the  right  of  this,  and  in  the  rafters 
ridging  the  ceiling  were  hooks  where  festoons  of 
onions,  dried  apples,  and  peppers  used  to  hang.  A 
wooden  floor  was  laid  upon  the  bricks  worn  by  the 
tread  of  four  generations  of  busy  Marthas,  and 
another  window,  let  in  at  the  back,  made  the  room 
lighter  and  sweeter.  The  building  was  substantial 
and  weather-tight;  the  walls  of  solid  stone  kept  it 
warm  in  winter  and  cool  in  summer ;  a  hipped  Dutch 
roof  gave  the  upper  rooms  a  loftier  pitch  than  would 
have  been  afforded  by  a  story-and-a-half  frontage, 
had  the  decline  from  combing  to  eaves  been  un 
broken.  There  were  seven  bed-chambers  above- 
stairs,  and  four  spacious  rooms  on  the  ground-floor, 
exclusive  of  the  kitchen  and  store-closets.  A  dry 
cellar  underran  the  whole  house. 

The  consultation  between  mistress  and  maid  was 
held  in  the  long  porch  on  the  lakeward  side.  The 
flooring  of  this  was  of  brick ;  white  columns,  small 
and  frequent,  upheld  the  roof,  and  honeysuckles  of 
the  old-fashioned  varieties,  hardy,  and  prodigal  of 
bloom  and  scent,  curtained  this  open-air  sitting- 
room  of  the  present  inmates.  Clumps  of  such  roses 
as  our  mothers  loved  to  plant  and  tend,  —  red  and 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  181 

white  damask,  and  many-flowering  cinnamon,  now 
a  mass  of  pink  fragrance,  —  grew  lushily  upon  the 
lawn.  To  the  left  of  Mrs.  Paull,  as  she  sat  beside 
her  basket  work-stand,  were  garden  and  orchard ;  to 
her  right,  a  row  of  tall  pines  broke  the  northern 
winds  in  winter.  Beyond,  and  right  in  front  of  her, 
were  the  lake  and  the  wooded  hills  she  was  learning 
to  love,  —  calm,  restful,  and  full  of  hopeful  uplifting, 
—  abiding  forever. 

Elspeth  was  shelling  peas  into  a  brown  bowl, 
sitting  as  straight  as  a  ramrod  upon  her  kitchen 
chair.  The  three  children  were  at  play  in  the 
grove  of  native  woods,  —  oak,  hickory,  and  tulip- 
poplar,  —  that  separated  the  house  by  several  hun 
dred  yards  from  the  high  road. 

"I  feel  virtue  enter  into  me  day  by  day,"  Mrs. 
Paull  had  written  to  her  brother  the  night  before. 
"  I  am  like  a  shipwrecked  man,  who,  thrown  upon  a 
friendly  shore,  sits  in  the  shade,  gathering  his 
forces,  and  recounting  over  to  himself  how  much  he 
has  for  which  to  thank  God. " 

In  like  strain  she  had  opened  the  dialogue  with 
Elspeth.  Nevertheless,  there  were  certain  matters 
that  gave  her  serious  and  perplexing  thought,  she 
said. 

"  To  begin  with,  I  cannot  let  Mr.  Lanier  do  any 
thing  more  for  us.  Under  his  management,  my 
income  ought  to  support  the  children  and  myself. 
He  is  rich,  and  he  is  generous  to  a  fault ;  but  he  has 
a  family  of  his  own,  and  you  will  understand  me 
when  I  say  that  we  cannot  afford  —  nobody  can  afford 
• —  to  be  paupers." 


182  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Elspeth  nodded  in  grim  sympathy.  She  seldom 
spoke  until  a  case  was  laid  fully  before  her. 

"We  cannot  get  along  without  a  horse  and  car 
riage,  but  I  propose,  when  Lanier's  vacation  begins, 
to  dismiss  Aleck  Sands,  and  let  my  big  boy  learn 
how  to  take  care  of  a  horse.  He  will  have  to  make 
his  way  in  the  world,  and  the  experience  will  be  of 
service  to  him.  One  day's  work  from  Aleck  in  each 
week  will  keep  the  garden  in  order,  with  such  weed 
ing  as  Tom  and  Edwin  must  be  taught  to  do.  The 
two  cows  in  your  hands  will  supply  us  with  milk  and 
butter,  and  the  poultry-yard  will  be  my  affair.  I 
shall  enjoy  the  open-air  life  and  diversion  it  will 
give  me. 

"  Elspeth  !  "  —  coming  to  the  point  of  the  discourse, 
—  "  we  must,  in  one  way  or  another,  manage  to  live 
upon  nine  hundred  dollars  a  year,  —  the  children's 
schooling  and  all.  I  know  that  I  can  depend  upon 
you  to  help  me  do  it." 

"Ye  may." 

Whatever  might  be  the  spring  of  her  mistress's 
earnestness,  she  answered  her  as  the  helm  the  pilot's 
grasp. 

She  had,  in  early  life,  subsisted  and  thriven  upon 
oatmeal  porridge  and  milk,  bannocks  and  tough 
cheese,  and  was  not  now  to  be  terrified  by  talk  of 
hardship. 

"  'T  wull  likely  come  hard  upon  Master  Lanier 
and  the  bit  laddies  for  a  while,"  she  subjoined, 
tentatively. 

"  Lanier  will  understand.  He  has  become  a  man 
in  the  last  few  months,  and  is  not  ashamed  to  do  a 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  183 

man's  work.  I  shall  keep  nothing  back  from  him. 
I  know  what  his  answer  will  be." 

She  folded  the  pair  of  Tom's  socks  she  had 
mended,  picked  up  one  of  Gladys's  stockings,  ran 
her  hand  into  the  toe,  and,  detecting  a  thin  spot, 
threaded  her  needle.  The  rattle  of  the  shelled  peas 
falling  from  Elspeth's  fingers,  the  singing  of  the 
birds  in  the  grove,  and  the  distant  voices  of  the  chil 
dren  made  a  summer  song  to  the  murmured  accom 
paniment  of  the  breeze  in  the  pines.  Elspeth  did  not 
steal  so  much  as  a  glimpse  at  the  face  which,  she 
divined,  took  on  a  graver  thoughtfulness  before  the 
mistress  spoke  again. 

"Nor  do  I  intend  to  conceal  from  you  why  we 
must  work  hard  and  save  all  we  can  by  simple  living. 
There  was  a  debt  of  three  thousand  dollars  which 
Mr.  Paull  could  not  pay  before  he  went  abroad.  Mr. 
Lanier  paid  it.  While  I  live,  the  interest  upon  that 
money  must  be  met  regularly  by  me,  or  by  my  chil 
dren,  whatever  Mr.  Lanier  may  say  to  the  contrary. 
My  husband  had  no  claim  upon  him.  I  have  made 
my  will.  It  orders,  that,  before  my  property  is 
divided  among  my  heirs,  the  sum  of  three  thousand 
dollars  shall  be  paid  to  Mr.  Roger  Lanier,  or  his 
heirs.  It  is  a  debt  of  honor  and  of  conscience. " 

Again  Elspeth  gave  her  confirmatory  nod. 

"Three  thousand  dollars!  The  interest  on  that 
wad  be  one  hunder'  an'  eighty." 

"  At  six  per  cent  —  yes. " 

"  Where  there  's  a  wull  there  's  a  way,  barring  the 
interfairence  o'  Providence,  which  ye  have  nae  call 
to  expect.  What  I  have  on  my  mind  now  goes  to 


184  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

show  that  the  leaning  o'  Providence  is  quite  in  the 
contrairy  direction." 

She  plunged  both  bony  hands  into  the  basket  of 
peas  at  her  side,  brought  up  a  bounteous  supply, 
which  she  bestowed  in  her  aproned  lap,  and,  eyes 
intent  upon  her  task,  proceeded  to  empty  her  budget. 

She  had  spent  a  day  in  the  city  a  week  ago,  and 
lunched  with  an  old  friend  and  fellow-countrywoman 
whose  husband  kept  a  grocery  upon  Sixth  Avenue. 
In  conversation  with  him  at  dinner,  she  had  learned 
that  he  would  pay  fifteen  cents  apiece  for  half -pint 
tumblers  of  currant  jelly  of  really  excellent  quality, 
and  stood  prepared  to  take  all  she  could  send  to 
market.  He  would  pay  fourteen  cents  per  glass  for 
grape,  and  the  same  for  quince  jelly;  twelve  cents 
for  marmalade  and  for  nice  preserves;  for  chow- 
chow,  picklette,  and  good  mixed  pickles,  a  dollar  a 
gallon;  twelve  cents  a  pint  for  catsup  and  chilli 
sauce  of  the  best  quality. 

At  this  point  of  the  narrative,  Elspeth  brought 
from  her  pocket  a  paper  on  which  the  same  long 
headed  Scot  had  computed  the  cost  of  jars,  glasses, 
and  bottles,  at  wholesale,  and  the  freight  to  New 
York,  delivered  at  the  dock.  He  would  do  the 
hauling  uptown  with  his  own  wagons. 

"  I  've  put  down  in  me  own  figures  the  wholesale 
price  o'  sugar,  vinegar,  spice,  and  the  like,"  added 
Elspeth.  "The  fruit  ye  have  on  yer  own  land  for 
the  picking.  Thanks  to  Mr.  Lanier,  there  's  wood 
in  the  shed  over  yonder  to  last  a  full  year:  so 
there  's  no  expense  of  fuel.  If  me  figures  are  correct, 
ye  should  clear  eight  cent  a  glass  on  the  jellies, 


THE  ROYAL   ROAD.  185 

eight  cents  on  the  jam,  and  eight  on  the  preserves ; 
ye  can  buy  butter-tubs  from  the  grocers  for  yer 
pickles  for  fifteen  cents  apiece,  and  new  ones  whole 
sale  for  thirty  cents.  Ye  suld  mak'  on  a'  evveredge 
from  fifty  to  sixty  cents  a  gallon,  and  eight  on  every 
bottle  of  catsup.  There  's  no  nicer  pickles  in 
America  than  yours,  and  self-praise  gaes  leetle 
ways,  I  know,  but  the  mither  wha'  tached  me  to  mak' 
marmalade  wad  not  hae  been  fashed  had  she  heard 
that  hers  was  on  the  Queen's  table." 

Mrs.  PaulPs  hands,  with  stocking,  darning-ball, 
and  needle,  had  fallen  upon  her  lap ;  she  stared  be 
wildered  at  her  lieutenant,  as  she  returned  the  paper 
to  her  pocket  and  dived  for  another  double  handful 
of  peas. 

"  You  take  my  breath  away !  "  the  lady  found  the 
strength  to  ejaculate,  at  length.  "  Do  you  really 
believe  that  you  and  I  could  make  and  send  enough 
of  such  things  to  market  to  make  it  worth  our  while 
to  undertake  the  work  ?  With  all  the  rest  that  you 
have  to  do  ?  " 

"We  could  put  up  enough  in  a  year  by  working 
three  days  of  each  week  in  the  summer  to  more 
than  half-pay  yer  interest  money,"  declared  the 
parent  of  the  astounding  scheme.  "  We  'd  mak'  that 
our  work.  Just  as  a  man  goes  into  carpentering  or 
blacksmithing  or  whatnot-ing,  or "  —  her  mouth 
twitching  —  "  making  marmalade  for  his  leeving. 
I  've  had  a-many  serious  thought  o'  late  months 
ma'am.  We  've  passed  through  that  that  sets  folks' 
wits  to  working.  And  it 's  come  to  me  —  I  don't 
believe  from  the  de'il  either  — that  one  o'  God's 


186  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

ways  o'  helping  us  when  we  are  sair  put  aboot,  and 
cast  down  in  spirit,  is  to  give  us  some  one  particular 
thing  that  we  must  do.  Not  to  leave  us  to  our  own 
devices,  with  leeberty  to  pick  a  bit  at  this  duty  an'  a 
wee  bit  at  that,  as  suits  our  notions. 

"I  can't  but  believe  the  needcessity  of  working 
day  by  day,  because  that  one  peticklar  thing  has  to 
be  done,  and  done  then,  would  do  more  for  you  than 
all  the  doctors  on  baith  sides  o'  the  sea,  or  even  the 
sweet  air  of  these  blessed  hills.  There  's  all  the 
differ  betwixt  this  sort  of  work-a-day  living,  and 
that  done  by  most  ladies,  that  there  was  betwixt 
the  ploughing  done  once  upon  a  time  by  my  twa 
brothers.  Jem  had  his  eyne  on  the  ground,  on  the 
sky,  or  anywhere,  and  Rab  took  tent  o'  one  tree  at 
the  other  end  of  the  field,  and  never  took  his  eyne 
off  of  it.  One  furrow  was  like  the  wriggle  of  a 
snake,  and  the  other  straight  as  a  bow-string. " 

"  There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  what  you  have 
said.  The  same  thought  has  been  with  me  often 
lately.  I  have  found  my  mind  swinging  back  to 
what  I  most  wish  to  forget,  as  soon  as  I  sit  down 
quietly  to  my  sewing,  and,  now  and  then,  when  I 
awake  early  in  the  morning,  the  old  question  comes 
in  upon  my  mind,  —  'Is  life  worth  getting  up  for  ?  ' 

She  was  looking  across  the  lake  at  a  certain  obtuse 
peak  in  the  second  range  of  hills.  It  had  reminded 
her,  when  she  first  saw  it,  she  could  not  have  told 
why  or  how  —  of  the  "  Old  Hoaryhead  "  of  Jacob 
Abbott's  ever-delightful  book  of  that  name.  Into 
the  midst  of  thoughts  excited  by  what  they  had  been 
talking  of,  recurred  to  her  now  the  proposition  by 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  187 

Gilbert's  mother  on  the  evening  of  the  day  in  which 
they  had  heard  that  they  could  not  have  the  house 
they  had  hoped  to  buy :  - 

"  Cannot  we  do  something  to  keep  us  from  think 
ing  about  it  ?  " 

Gilbert  had  answered,  "We  might  make  maple 
candy. " 

While  they  were  busied  in  the  manufacture  of  the 
maple  candy,  came  the  news  that  the  home  they 
desired  was  to  be  theirs  after  all. 

A  sharp  pain  caught  and  sobered  the  dawning 
smile  with  which  she  recalled  the  story.  Nothing 
could  reverse  the  current  of  her  life.  Streams 
diverted  from  their  course  by  earthquakes  do  not 
flow  back  into  the  old  channels.  The  river-beds  are 
themselves  riven  and  upheaved. 

Yet  Elspeth  was  wise  in  her  generation.  There 
is  wisdom  in  every  age  in  the  pursuit  of  a  specific 
line  of  labor  as  a  balm  for  bruised  hearts  and  bleed 
ing  sensibilities.  "  Something  to  take  our  thoughts 
off  of  ourselves  "  is  the  homely  phrase  for  the  con 
ditions  in  which  work  is  most  truly  God's  medicine 
for  his  smitten  ones. 

"The  idea  gains  upon  me,"  she  continued,  after  a 
thoughtful  pause.  "We  are  a  colony  in  ourselves, 
—  a  community  with  few  ties  to  that  which  lies  about 
us.  Why  not  establish  an  industry  of  our  own  ?  be 
a  hive  of  working-bees,  and  not  drones  or  butter 
flies  ? " 

Elspeth  caught  at  one  word :  — 

"I  had  thought  of  bees  for  Miss  Marie,  — after 
a  while,  when  her  schooling  is  done.  There  's  acres 


188  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

of  white  clover,  and  buckwheat,  and  linden-trees  yon 
by  the  lake.  If  she  could  fasten  so  much  as  one 
thought  upon  something  near  her  home,  it  would 
be  mair  halesome  for  her.  Mr.  Cameron  had  his 
word  to  say  aboot  bees,  as  well  as  the  preserves  and 
pickles.  He  tellt  me  of  one  man  who  spent  twenty- 
five  dollars  in  hives  and  bees,  and  the  very  next 
year  he  gathered  fifteen  hunder'  punds  of  honey. 
Bees  are  friendly,  lovin'  creatures,  and  if  Miss 
Marie  wad  hearken  to  the  notion,  she  'd  tak'  kindly 
to  them  at  the  end.  But,  it 's  not  to  be  gainsaid  that 
she  is  a  very  determined  lassie. " 

Did  the  loving  nurse  suspect  how  "determined," 
or  the  deadly  sinking  of  the  mother's  heart  at  the 
mention  of  the  wilful  child,  who,  of  all  her  brood, 
held  her  eyes  waking  into  the  far  watches  of  the 
night  ?  —  vigils  in  which  one  query  was  rung  like  a 
warning  knell  through  the  chambers  of  thought,  — 
"  What  will  be  the  end  of  it  all  ?  "  Labor  for  a  defi 
nite  and  desired  end  might  bring  temporary  relief 
from  the  wearing  burden,  but  the  cross  would  settle 
back  into  its  place  as  soon  as  she  let  herself  think  of 
her  love  for  her  girl,  and  the  gulf  that  gaped  between 
them  more  widely  every  day. 

"A  determined  lassie!"  Her  repetition  of  the 
words  was  an  inward  groan. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 


It  is  the  duty  of  all  to  be  firm  in  that  which  they 
certainly  know  is  right  for  them  to  do. 

JOHN  WOOLMAN. 

He  often  acts  unjustly  who  does  not  do  a  certain 
thing;  not  only  he  who  does  a  certain  thing. 

MARCUS  ANTONINUS. 

Evil,  once  manfully  fronted,  ceases  to  be  evil.  There 
is  generous  battle-hope  in  place  of  dead,  passive  misery. 
The  evil  itself  has  become  a  kind  of  good. 

THOMAS  CARLYLE. 


CHAPTER    XL 

MR.  MORSE  was  a,  model  country  pastor,  whom 
the  appellation,  always  respectful,  sometimes 
affectionate,  of  "Dominie,"  fitted  as  naturally  as  his 
skin.  His  sermons,  as  Mrs.  Paull  had  already 
discovered,  would  never  be  brilliant,  or  striking  in 
originality.  They  would  never  be  dull,  or  devoid  of 
spiritual  instruction.  Out  of  the  pulpit,  he  was 
leader,  teacher,  and  brother.  All  this  his  people 
knew  and  appreciated,  without  a  glimmer  of  a  sus 
picion  that  he  was  (for  their  good  it  is  true)  as  very 
an  autocrat  in  the  hill  township  as  was  ever  a  Leo 
or  a  Gregory  in  his  papal  see. 

He  met  Mrs.  Paull,  introduced  by  her  daughter, 
with  the  easy  freemasonry  of  one  who  had  been  at 
home  in  the  world  she  had  left.  A  reader  of  men, 
rather  than  of  books,  he  had  many  acquaintances  in 
New  York,  and  he  had  kept  step  mentally  with  the 
advanced  line  of  workers  in  church  and  letters.  Of 
the  Laniers,  father  and  son,  he  had  heard  through 
those  who  were  his  personal  friends  and  theirs.  He 
asked  not  one  word  of  her  husband,  a  circumstance 
that  might  be  significant  or  unimportant.  He  might 
imagine  that  she  was  a  widow ;  it  was  possible  that, 
through  some  of  these  same  personal  friends,  he  had 
become  cognizant  of  what  she  had  hoped  to  leave 
behind  her  when  she  had  quitted  the  city.  In  either 


192  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

case  he  was  a  gentleman,  and  spared  her  needless 
pain. 

"You  have  come  into  a  quiet,  orderly,  God-fearing 
and  kindly  neighborhood,"  Mr.  Morse  was  saying 
when  she  shook  herself  free  from  the  haunting 
thought.  "Primitive  in  their  mode  of  living,  and, 
you  may  think,  narrow  in  many  ways,  but  should 
you  ever  be  in  trouble,  they  will  show  themselves  to 
be  made  of  the  right  stuff.  I  have  lived  among  them 
for  ten  years,  happily,  and  I  hope  not  uselessly. 
They  are  a  peculiar  people  in  some  respects,  —  these 
New  Jersey  farming  folk.  The  New  England  yeoman 
is  not  more  sturdy  in  his  independence  and  pride  of 
ancestry.  Many  of  them  live  upon  the  very  lands 
granted  to  their  forefathers  by  the  English  crown; 
yet  there  was  not  a  Tory  in  the  Pequod  Valley  when 
Washington  pitched  his  camp  upon  the  beetling  cliff 
you  see  over  there.  More  than  one  bloody  skirmish 
took  place  upon  the  road  on  which  I  found  this 
young  lady  to-day,"  —  smiling  at  Marie. 

He  and  she  were  friends  already.  Mrs.  Paull 
was  surprised  and  gratified  that  the  smile  was 
brightly  returned,  and  yet  more  when  the  girl  joined 
in  the  talk,  asking  questions  as  to  local  traditions, 
the  names  of  their  nearer  neighbors,  and  the  make 
up  of  families,  and  engaging  readily  to  take  a  class 
in  the  Sunday  school,  should  her  services  be  needed 
during  her  vacation.  It  was  plain  that  she  had 
taken  an  unusual  liking  to  the  frank-faced  clergy 
man,  and  that  his  society,  or  the  walk  or  drive,  had 
aroused  her  out  of  the  morose  apathy  that  had 
enwrapped  her  for  so  long. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  193 

Yet  when  he  took  leave,  she  was  flying  off  to  her 
own  room,  without  word  or  sign  to  her  mother. 

"  Marie,  love,  come  and  sit  out  here  with  me !  " 
called  the  latter  from  the  porch.  "  I  have  something 
which  I  wish  to  talk  over  with  you." 

Feigning  not  to  observe  the  partial  scowl  upon 
the  fair  young  face,  she  pulled  a  chair  close  to  her 
own,  and  motioned  her  daughter  into  it. 

"Elspeth  has  broached  an  extraordinary  scheme 
to  me  this  morning, "  she  went  on  to  say.  "  Since 
your  co-operation  will  be  an  important  factor  in  our 
plans,  I  am  impatient  to  see  how  it  will  impress 
you." 

Elspeth,  passing  from  kitchen  to  dining-room  in 
preparation  for  the  early  country  dinner,  marvelled 
secretly  at  the  mixture  of  wisdom  and  simplicity  in 
the  manner  of  the  mother's  communication.  That 
which  had  commended  the  novel  undertaking  to  the 
wife  must  be  withheld  from  the  defaulter's  daughter, 
and  in  the  place  of  reimbursement  of  the  stolen 
funds,  the  hope  of  retrieving  in  some  degree  the 
fallen  fortunes  of  the  family  must  be  made  much  of. 

"We  shall  never  be  rich,  dear,"  said  the  refined 
tones,  wondrously  gentle  and  cordial  in  the  ear  of 
one  who  had  seen  the  speaker  held  persistently  at 
arm's-length  during  the  period  when  physical  infirm 
ity  and  heartache  should  have  commended  her  to 
her  child's  tenderest  sympathy.  "  While  we  live  ill 
this  retired  quarter  of  the  world  we  cannot  expect  to 
be  'society  people.'  But  we  can  be  a  busy,  happy, 
self-supporting  community,  working  harmoniously 
together  for  one  and  the  same  end.  There  is  a  sort 

13 


194  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

of  Swiss  Family  Robinsonish  flavor  in  the  scheme 
that  makes  it  inviting  to  me.  I  see  already,  in 
imagination,  that  long  storeroom  on  the  north  side 
of  the  dining-room  filled  with  jars  and  glasses  ready 
to  be  shipped  to  market.  Does  n't  that  sound  im 
portant  ?  There  are  literally  bushels  of  currants, 
red,  white,  and  black,  in  the  garden,  that  will  be 
ripe  in  a  week  or  so;  raspberries,  wild  and  culti 
vated,  will  be  ready  for  picking  by  the  time  the 
strawberries  are  gone;  the  quince-hedge  at  the 
bottom  of  the  orchard  is  loaded  with  fruit,  and  there 
are  four  large  Siberian  crab-trees,  not  to  speak  of 
other  apple  and  pear-trees  —  oh !  and  plenty  of  grapes 
in  the  garden  and  woods,  for  jelly.  The  fruit  on 
this  place  would  seem  to  have  been  a  hobby  with 
the  former  owner.  Elspeth  sees  a  special  providence 
in  this." 

Her  manner  was  the  livelier  for  the  effort  she  was 
compelled  to  make  to  ignore  the  forbidding  silence 
with  which  her  remarks  were  received,  and  not  to 
betray  the  failure  in  courage  it  caused.  She  was  by 
temperament,  and  in  practice,  brave  beyond  the  aver 
age  of  her  sex,  but  she  had  discovered  lately  that  she 
was  actually  afraid  of  Marie. 

In  nearly  every  household  where  there  are  several 
members,  there  is  to  be  found  almost  invariably  one 
who  has  a  Temper  (with  a  capital  T) ;  as  invariably, 
this  member  is  the  object  of  more  consideration  than 
any  or  all  of  the  rest.  Let  temper  take  on  what 
guise  it  may,  it  demands,  expects,  and  receives, 
solicitous  conciliation.  The  owner  may  be  "sensi 
tive,"  and  her  tender-heartedness  express  itself  in 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  195 

tears  as  softly-abundant  as  the  flow  of  Sweet  Afton. 
It  may  choose  to  be  classed  as  Moods,  many,  and 
varying  in  intensity  and  duration.  There  is  the 
Dynamite  Mood,  around  which  friends  and  kindred 
step  with  stockinged  feet  and  cautious  respiration. 
It  may  be  the  Slow  Combustion  Mood,  lurid  and 
dull,  like  ignited  subterranean  coal-beds,  betrayed 
only  by  a  puff  of  smoke  through  an  occasional 
fissure,  until,  all  at  once,  everything  gives  way 
before  the  heat,  and  lives  are  wrecked  in  an  abyss 
of  vindictiveness.  In  all  phases  these  are  Temper 
(with  a  capital  T) ;  —  not  necessarily  the  child  of 
the  devil,  —  rather  like  fire,  a  good  servant,  but  the 
worst  of  masters.  Finally,  I  may  observe  that  the 
most  effectual  way  of  nursing  it  into  masterful 
proportions  is  by  showing  it  the  respect  I  have 
alluded  to  as  the  practice  of  many  Christian  folk 
who  have  to  do  with  it. 

In  nine  times  out  of  ten,  sinful  temporizing  with 
Temper  (with  a  capital  T)  begins  when  the  offenders 
are  no  older  than  our  cherubic  would-be  tyrants.  It 
is  easier,  argue  mistaken  parents  and  friends,  to  go 
around  a  hill  than  over  it;  it  is  easier  to  fill  up 
valleys  than  to  tunnel  mountains ;  yet  shrewd  engi 
neers  drive  rocks  to  their  adamantine  hearts,  and  run 
their  roads  right  through  them.  Peace  is  dear  to 
the  mother's  soul,  but  it  is  dearly  bought  by  the 
sacrifice  of  lawful  authority  and  the  subversion  of 
the  rights  of  those  whose  claim  to  consideration  is 
as  worthy  of  respect  as  that  of  the  Temper's  owner. 
The  chief  sufferer,  however,  from  this  system  of 
amiable  or  cowardly  truckling  to  the  leashed  wolf  of 


196  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

the  home,  is  he  whose  own  the  beast  is.  For  a  while 
the  creature  may  follow  meekly  at  heel,  or  stalk  with 
red  eyes  and  dripping  tusks  at  his  master's  side, 
ready  to  rend  at  his  command.  In  the  end,  he  is 
sure  to  spring  at  his  leader's  throat. 

Mrs.  Paull  was  a  good  woman,  and,  as  a  rule, 
judicious  in  the  management  of  her  children.  That 
Marie  was  spoiled  to  some  extent  by  her  father,  she 
had  seen  from  the  girl's  babyhood,  and  that  certain 
inherited  traits  made  her  spiritual  education  a  more 
arduous  undertaking  than  that  of  her  brother.  In 
the  excess  of  compassionate  tenderness  that  over 
flowed  her  heart  in  the  discovery  of  the  girl's  morbid 
wretchedness  and  exaggerated  loyalty  to  her  absent 
parent,  began  the  course  of  treatment  which  the 
mother  would  have  characterized  as  mischievous  and 
short-sighted  in  another.  She  had  helped  to  nurse 
discontented  fancies  and  preposterous  conceits  of 
sublime  self-devotion.  In  constituting  herself  her 
father's  champion  against  his  traducers,  the  daugh 
ter  had  arrayed  her  powers  against  the  foes  in  his 
own  household.  Refusing  blindly  to  credit  one 
item  in  her  uncle's  indictment  of  the  embezzler  and 
bigamist,  she  virtually  accused  the  wife  of  weakness, 
or  open  want  of  fealty  to  her  husband.  In  the 
creed  of  the  youthful  judge,  Ernest  Paull's  lightest 
word  should  have  outweighed  any  accumulation  of 
evidence  brought  by  others.  The  lofty  generosity 
that  made  Alice  Paull  submit  to  censure  of  herself, 
and  accept  the  lowered  place  in  her  child's  esteem, 
sooner  than  break  the  idol  of  gilded  clay  which  the 
misguided  votary  adored  as  pure  gold,  told  incal- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  197 

culably  against  her.  The  patient  ingenuity  of  love 
that  strove  to  beguile  the  wilful  mourner  into 
healthier  lines  of  thought  was  misread  as  the  mean- 
spiritedness  of  a  woman  who  knew  herself  to  be  in 
fault,  and  would  cast  dust  in  the  penetrating  eyes  of 
her  accuser. 

In  a  word,  the  whole  policy  of  forbearance  with 
the  girl's  perverse  imaginings  was  the  surest  con 
ceivable  method  of  confirming  her  errors  and  vitiat 
ing  what  was  noble  in  her  nature.  She  had  grown 
into  the  habit  of  viewing  Marie  Paull  as  the  most 
important  and  interesting  personage  in  her  small 
world,  —  which  she  gradually  contracted  by  this  per 
suasion.  A  stubborn,  fanciful,  passionate  child,  she 
was  elevated  into  a  heroine  by  self-love  and  the 
mother's  ill-judged  indulgence. 

The  story  is  not  pleasant  in  the  telling,  or  in  the 
hearing.  It  would  be  more  tolerable  were  it  not  the 
repetition  of  the  history  of  hundreds  of  other  homes 
in  which  the  eldest  daughter  —  green  in  years  and  in 
judgment —  is  promoted  to  the  dictatorship  in  family 
councils.  While  the  mother  lives  in  the  possession 
of  a  moderate  degree  of  bodily  health,  and  such 
intellect  as  the  Lord  has  given  her,  and  which  was 
hers  when  her  husband  endowed  her  with  all  his 
worldly  goods,  her  abdication  in  favor  of  the  wisest, 
discreetest,  and  best  of  daughters  is  violence  done  to 
natural  law.  She  is  queen-regnant  until  death  or 
disease  wrests  the  sceptre  from  her  nerveless  hand. 

Marie  sat  in  the  chair  to  which  her  mother  had 
directed  her,  the  sweet  summer  air  fluttering  the 
rings  of  golden  hair  above  her  forehead,  the  goodly 


198  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

panorama  of  velvet  lawn,  laughing  waters,  and  the 
wooded  heights  rising  toward  the  ineffable  blue  of  the 
June  heavens,  spread  before  blank  eyes  that  saw 
them  not.  The  very  fact  that  appeal  was  made  to 
her  to  ratify  the  scheme  sketched  by  Elspeth  and 
seconded  by  her  mother,  settled  her  belief  in  the 
value  of  her  opinion,  and  predisposed  her  to  dissent. 
These  two  women  knew  themselves  to  be  so  far 
wrong,  and  her  so  entirely  right  in  the  main  question 
at  issue  between  her  and  themselves,  that  they  were 
afraid  of  her.  Her  word  was  fast  becoming  law  in 
the  household  ;  her  adverse  vote  would  have  the  force 
of  a  veto.  Her  mother  had  artfully  seized  upon  the 
moment  when  the  meeting  with  a  sensible  man  who 
could  appreciate  a  young  woman  of  parts  had,  as 
the  elder  woman  supposed,  put  her  into  a  sunny 
humor,  to  spring  the  absurd  proposition  upon  her. 
It  was  of  a  piece  with  the  transparent  wheedling  of 
which  she  was  continually  the  disdainful  subject 
when  in  her  nominal  home. 

She  meant  that  her  face  should  harden  as  she 
listened ;  she  did  not  know  that  it  was  likewise 
supercilious. 

"Well?"  she  said,  as  her  mother  ceased,  with 
what  she  designed  as  a  haughty  cadence,  and  which 
was  provokingly  pert. 

Elspeth  stopped  stock-still  in  the  kitchen  door,  a 
wrathful  glare  in  her  eyes  that  her  petted  nursling 
had  never  beheld  there. 

The  patient  parent  made  yet  another  effort  to 
propitiate  her  auditor. 

"You  will,  I  am  sure,   agree  with  me,   my  love, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  199 

that  we  ought  not  to  draw  further  upon  —  resources 
that  are  not  our  own.  Yet  our  expenses  cannot  be 
lessened  to  any  considerable  extent  for  some  years 
to  come.  Lanier  has  still  three  years  at  college,  and 
you  two  more  at  school,  and  while  I  can  and  shall 
continue  to  teach  the  little  ones  at  home  for  some 
time  to  come,  the  boys  must,  after  a  while,  go  to 
school.  I  am  thankful  for  the  prospect  so  unex 
pectedly  opened  of  adding  to  a  non-elastic  income. 
As  to  what  may  be  said  of  our  new  industry,  we  can 
certainly  afford  to  be  independent  of  popular  opinion, 
especially  in  this  out-of-the-way  quarter  of  the  world, 
even  if  there  were  any  reason  why  we  should  be 
ashamed  of  honest  labor.  If  I  were  an  artist,  or  a 
famous  author,"  —  with  a  sickly  attempt  at  playful- 
nesSj  —  "I  should  glory  in  exercising  my  talents  for 
the  sake  of  making  money.  If  I  have  a  taste  - 
'  talent '  may  be  too  dignified  a  word  —  for  jellies, 
pickles,  and  catsups,  why  not  improve  it  to  the  same 
honorable  end  ?  You  recollect  how  Miss  Dunstable, 
in  '  Framley  Parsonage, '  prided  herself  upon  the 
fortune  made  by  the  hereditary  '  Ointment '  ?  We 
will  think  up  a  telling  name  for  our  place  here,  and 
have  some  labels  lettered  with  it,  or,  perhaps,  when 
our  reputation  is  made,  may  go  to  the  length  of  hav 
ing  it  blown  in  the  glass.  Think  of  it  !  Who  knows 
but  my  name  may  go  down  to  a  grateful  posterity 
along  with  Mrs.  Bundle's  and  Mrs.  Glasse's  ?  " 

"If  that  is  your  ambition,  I  hope  that  you  will 
use  'Lanier,'  and  not  'Paull,'  "  retorted  Marie,  in  a 
tone  as  offensive  as  the  words.  "As  my  father's 
representative,  I  have  the  right  to  say  that  much." 


200  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

Observing  the  pale  surprise  in  her  mother's  face, 
she  went  on  inexorably :  — 

"You  should  not  have  asked  my  opinion,  if  you 
did  not  want  it,  mother.  I  know  that  this  whole 
enterprise,  as  you  call  it,  born,  you  would  have  me 
believe,  in  the  brains  of  Elspeth  and  her  Scotch 
grocer,  would  be  abominable  in  his  sight.  How 
ever  little  we  may  care  about  maintaining  our  posi 
tion  as  ladies  among  those  with  whom  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  associate,  I  hold  that  something  is 
due  to  his  reputation  as  a  gentleman.  He  would 
feel  outraged  and  disgraced  forever  were  he  to  hear 
that  a  jam-and-pickle  factory  was  established  in  his 
house.  In  his  name,  and  for  his  honor,  I  shall  fight 
the  detestable  plan  to  the  end. " 

"  I  aye  thocht "  —  came  in  grating  accents  and  Els- 
peth's  broadest  Scotch  from  the  kitchen  door  —  "I 
aye  thocht,  being  a  fule  body  wha  fears  God  and 
honors  her  betters,  and  is  gr-r-ratfu'  to  them  wha 
hae  loaded  her  wi'  benefeets  —  that  it  war  Meester-r-r 
Lanier's  hoose  wha  keepit  oot  th'  rain  o'  heaven 
an'  the  heat  o'  simmer,  an'  wull  shelter  their 
bairnies  an'  their  mither  frae  th'  winter's  cauld. " 

Marie  sprang  to  her  feet,  and  wheeled  upon  her, 
eyes  blazing  and  face  dark  with  anger. 

"  How  dare  you  interfere  between  my  mother  and 
myself  ?  How  dare  you  remind  me  that  I  am  obliged 
to  live  under  that  man's  roof,  and  to  eat  the  bread 
of  his  charity  ?  —  the  man  who,  if  you  two  would  tell 
the  truth,  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  degrading  plan  for 
pulling  my  father's  children  down  to  the  level  of 
factory-operatives  and  hucksters  !  Oh, "  —  wringing 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  201 

her  hands  and  bursting  into  a  storm  of  passionate 
tears,  —  "  if  he  were  here,  we  should  soon  see  who  is 
master,  — he,  or  Roger  Lanier,  whose  puppets  you 
two  are ! " 

Mrs.  Paull  arose  from  her  seat,  deliberately,  and 
with  calm  severity.  The  likeness  to  her  brother 
was  marked  as  she  confronted  the  mad  creature, 
putting  a  firm  hand  upon  each  quivering  shoulder. 

"Elspeth,"  to  the  thunder-stricken  servant, 
"  please  leave  us !  Marie,  stop  crying,  and  listen  to 
me !  Your  coarse  violence  has  forced  me  to  say  what 
I  had  not  intended  to  have  pass  my  lips,  at  this,  or 
any  time.  But  for  him  of  whom  you  speak,  there 
would  be  no  necessity  for  the  work  which  I  propose 
to  carry  on  without  further  consultation  with  you ; 
and  until  you  can  treat  your  mother  with  something 
like  the  respect  due  to  her  age  and  position,  I  forbid 
you  to  mention  him  again  in  this,  your  uncle's 
house.  Now  go  to  your  room,  and  come  down  at 
dinner-time  in  a  more  reasonable  frame  of  mind." 

"I  am  not  to  be  treated  like  a  child ! "  sobbed  the 
insulted  heroine. 

"Then  do  not  behave  like  one,"  said  Mrs.  Paull, 
coolly.  "  Gladys,  dear,  it  is  time  for  your  music 
lesson." 

The  muffled  scales  and  exercises  run  by  the  small 
fingers  under  the  gentle  tuition  of  her  mother,  arose 
through  the  flooring  on  which  heroic  Marie  stretched 
herself  to  have  her  cry  out.  When  the  baby  sister 
tapped  at  her  door  to  say  that  dinner  was  on  the 
table,  there  was  no  response. 

"She  may  be  asleep,"  remarked   the  mistress  of 


202  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

the  house,  composedly,  when  this  report  was  made. 
"We  will  not  disturb  her." 

The  sun  had  set,  and  supper  was  eaten,  before  the 
young  lady  of  the  house  appeared  below  stairs.  Mrs. 
Paull  was  writing  at  a  table  in  the  shade  of  the 
honeysuckles.  Marie  passed  her  with  level  chin  and 
proud  step,  went  out  to  the  barn,  thence  to  the  poul 
try-yard,  in  search  of  the  man-of-all-work,  returning 
presently,  unsuccessful. 

"Aleck  has  gone  t'o  the  village,  my  dear,"  her 
mother  remarked  pleasantly,  glancing  at  the  bulky 
envelope  in  her  daughter's  hand.  "Your  letter  is 
too  late  for  the  evening  mail,  but  Elspeth  will  take 
it  when  she  goes  to  the  city  to-morrow. " 

She  resumed  her  writing,  which  the  discomfited 
heroine  could  not  help  seeing  was  a  long  memo 
randum. 

Elspeth 's  errand  was  then  the  purchase  of  ma 
chinery  for  the  abhorrent  jam-and-jelly  manufacture ! 

Her  mother  looked  up  again,  seemingly  unobservant 
of  the  sodden  complexion  and  drooping  eyelids  that 
told  their  tale  of  the  afternoon's  experiences. 

"  Elspeth  is  keeping  your  supper  hot  for  you,  my 
daughter.  You  would  better  get  it  now. " 

With  the  mortifying  reminiscence  fresh  in  her 
mind  of  Elspeth's  summary  measures  upon  the  occa 
sion  of  a  former  refusal  to  partake  of  the  food  pre 
pared  for  her,  Marie  deemed  it  best  to  obey  the 
recommendation.  After  which  she  betook  herself 
again  unchallenged  to  her  locked  chamber,  and  tore 
off  the  envelopes  of  two  letters  to  add  a  postscript 
to  one: — 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  203 

"  Will  you  not  let  me  come  to  you,  darling  papa  ? 
I  would  rather  starve  at  your  side  than  live  anywhere 
else  away  from  you.  And  I  am  very,  very  miserable 
here  !  Nobody  sympathizes  with,  or  understands  me. 
I  feel,  as  never  before,  that  you  are  the  one  being 
upon  earth  who  ever  entered  into  my  finer  feelings. 
How  well  I  recollect  hearing  you  once  repeat  some 
lines  beginning,  - 

4  The  frigid  and  unfeeling  thrive  the  best ! ' 

"  Your  little  '  song-bird  '  has  her  breast  against  the 
thorn  now ! " 


CHAPTER   XII, 


It  is  not  by  regretting  what  is  irreparable  that  true 
work  is  to  be  done,  but  by  making  the  best  of  what  we 
are.  It  is  not  by  complaining  that  we  have  not  the 
right  tools,  but  by  using  well  the  tools  we  have. 

F.  W.  ROBERTSON. 

In  just  that  very  place  of  His 
Where  he  hath  put  and  keepeth  you, 
God  hath  no  other  thing  to  do. 

ADELINE  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

LANIER  PAULL  did  not  come  home  at  the 
close  of  the  college  term.  He  wrote,  instead, 
to  communicate  a  proposal  made  by  the  wealthy 
father  of  a  classmate,  that  Lanier  should  accompany 
his  son  to  the  family  country-seat,  near  Keene,  N.  H., 
to  "  coach  "  the  lad  in  mathematics  during  the  vaca 
tion.  Young  Paull,  although  not  yet  nineteen,  stood 
high  in  his  classes  for  scholarship  and  steadiness, 
and  had  gained  an  influence  over  the  decidedly  indo 
lent  and  somewhat  wild  boy  which  the  father  wished 
to  strengthen.  For  four  hours'  work  a  day,  and  a 
general  supervision  of  his  friend's  associations  and 
pursuits,  Lanier  would  receive  two  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  month,  his  board  and  lodgings. 

"I  cannot  afford  to  let  the  offer  slip  through  my 
fingers,  mother  darling,"  said  the  letter.  "Uncle 
Roger,  who  came  up  to  Commencement,  agrees  with 
me,  but  begs  me  to  run  down  to  New  Jersey  for  a 
peep  at  you.  As  Mr.  Bradley  and  his  son  leave  to 
morrow  for  Keene,  and  would  like  to  have  me  go 
with  them,  this  cannot  be,  even  if  there  were  no 
question  of  expense  in  the  way  —  and  there  is.  We 
are  one,  you  and  I  (when  were  we  otherwise  ? )  in 
sentiment  as  to  further  drains  upon  the  purse  of  the 
noblest,  most  open-hearted  and  open-handed  man 


208  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

that  ever  lived.  I  am  thankful  for  this  opportunity 
to  pay  my  way  through  college  next  term,  and  to 
relieve  your  dear,  over-full  hands  of  the  weight. " 

Until  the  news  came,  the  mother  had  not  confessed 
to  her  own  heart  how  hungrily  she  longed  for  the 
presence  of  her  first-born, —  the  tall,  broad-shouldered 
fellow,  who  was  in  person  and  character  so  much 
more  the  man  than  his  years  warranted.  In  the 
poignancy  of  her  disappointment  at  Marie's  undutiful 
behavior,  she  turned  with  fonder  desire  to  him  with 
whom  she  was  ever  at  one  in  thought  and  purpose. 

The  letter  was  received  just  one  week  after  the 
fruit-preserving  industry  was  resolved  upon.  With 
the  recollection  of  the  terrible  scene  with  his  sister 
sore  in  her  mind,  she  had  determined  to  wait  until 
she  could  explain  details  face-to-face,  before  taking 
him  into  her  counsel.  The  necessity  of  setting  it 
down  upon  paper,  with  no  opportunity  of  softening 
this  feature  of  the  work  and  emphasizing  that,  was, 
in  itself,  a  tax  upon  her  nerves.  By  return  mail 
she  had  a  long  reply,  full  of  encouragement,  and 
admiration  of  the  "pluckiest  of  all  plucky  women," 
tempered  by  loving  concern  lest  she  should  overtax 
her  bodily  powers.  From  her  brother  she  kept  the 
whole  matter  secret,  as  yet.  Sensible  and  high- 
minded  as  he  was,  she  could  not  be  sure  that  he 
might  not  shrink  from  the  suggestion  of  manual 
labor  and  trading  for  her,  and  insist  upon  increasing 
her  income  in  some  other  way  Should  he  suspect 
the  specific  purpose  for  which  she  was  to  work,  he 
would  undoubtedly  put  down  the  enterprise  with  the 
strong  hand  few  could  resist. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  209 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  in  the  initial  stages  of  the 
task,  Elspeth  was  her  only  coadjutor.  She  it  was 
who  insisted  upon  going  to  the  city  to  buy  gallipots, 
glasses,  firkins,  and  bottles,  with  such  groceries  as 
would  be  needed,  driving  bargains  that  opened  her 
mistress's  eyes  with  amazement  upon  the  energetic 
thrift  of  the  Scotch  character,  and  stirred  with 
amusement  the  lines  of  a  mouth  that  was  forming 
into  pathetic  curves  sadly  unlike  the  spirited  bow  of 
earlier  years. 

With  wise  decision,  for  which  Elspeth  was  not 
prepared,  Mrs.  Paull  assigned  to  Marie  a  stated 
round  of  domestic  cares,  in  order  that  her  mother  and 
the  tireless  maid-of-all-work  might  have  more  time 
for  the  duties  of  the  season.  While  careful  that  the 
girl  should  not  become  a  household  drudge,  the 
mother  gave  her  to  understand  that  she  was  respon 
sible  for  the  condition  of  her  own  and  Gladys's 
clothing,  for  the  cleanliness  and  order  of  her  bed 
room  and  the  parlor,  and  for  the  tasteful  array  of  the 
table  at  each  meal.  If  the  girl's  performance  of 
the  allotted  duties  was  lifeless  and  perfunctory,  the 
service  of  a  slave,  who  could  not  gainsay  her  task- 
mistress,  Mrs.  Paull  gave  no  sign  of  perceiving  it. 
Nor  did  she  wince  visibly  in  the  sight  of  daughter 
or  servant,  at  the  distant  respect  with  which  the 
former  addressed  her,  and  the  studious  literalness  of 
her  obedience  to  orders. 

The  little  boys  threw  themselves  eagerly  into  fruit- 
gathering,  each  dropping  daily  into  his  savings-bank 
the  pennies  paid  to  them  for  so  many  quarts  of 
strawberries,  currants,  and  raspberries  measured  by 

14 


210  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Elspeth.  Even  the  baby  had  her  harvest  and  her 
hoard. 

"They  say  that  bairnies'  work  is  more  plague 
than  profit,"  said  the  serving-woman,  one  hot 
July  day,  as  she  extracted  from  the  heap  of  "  black 
caps  "  upon  a  broad  platter,  green  caps  and  frag 
ments  of  stems  and  leaves,  indicative  of  juvenile 
industry.  "  I  dare  say  that 's  true,  if  all  that  the 
work  is  worth  is  what  grown  people  gain  from  it." 

Her  eyes  strayed  affectionately  to  the  trio,  who 
were  having  an  afternoon  tea-party  of  bread  and 
butter,  berries  and  milk,  upon  a  flat  rock  in  the 
shadow  of  a  bushy  lilac. 

"I  'm  thinking,  though,  that  they  are  mair  content 
for  believing  that  they  are  helping  along  the  wark 
o'  the  warld.  I  'm  minded,  in  watching  them,  o'  th' 
laddie  who,  when  the  men  could  not  get  the  vessel 
off  the  stocks,  ran  and  pushed  with  all  his  wee  might 
against  the  hull.  '  For,'  says  he,  '  I  can  push  a 
pound.'  The  tale  goes  that  the  great  ship  slipped 
right  down  into  the  water.  All  the  force  of  the  men 
who  were  straining  to  launch  her  happened  to  fall 
short  of  just  that  one  pund.  I  have  me  doubts  o' 
that  pairt  o'  th'  tale,  but  that  doesn't  alter  the 
moral.  It 's  the  old  parable  o'  th'  talents  all  the 
way  through.  The  main  thing  for  all  is  the  good 
the  helping  does  to  him  that  gives  it.  If  it 's  only 
going  through  th'  motions,  it 's  somehow  healthy  for 
the  soul.  I  mind  when  I  first  cam'  to  this  country, 
and  lived  for  a  year  in  Quebec,  I  used  to  see  the 
garrison  drilling  night  and  morning  as  careful  as  if 
the  enemy  was  in  sight  of  the  walls.  'T  was  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  211 

drill  made  soldiers  of  them  mair  than  the  fighting, 
which,  it 's  likely,  some  o'  them  never  gat.  I  've 
known  lads  to  enlist,  and  live  to  be  old  men,  and 
never  smell  powder  that  had  a  hall  at  the  front  of  it. " 

Mrs.  Paull's  eyes  followed  Elspeth  to  the  sturdy 
urchins  and  their  pretty  little  sister,  the  queen  of 
the  feast,  all  as  brown  as  buns,  from  the  country 
breezes,  and  glowing  with  health. 

"  Our  children  are  certainly  happier  for  thinking 
that  we  cannot  do  without  them,  —  which  is  true. 
Now  that  they  are  out  of  hearing,  and  are  quiet  for  a 
little  while,  I  wish  to  consult  you,  Elspeth,  about  a 
letter  Mr.  Morse  brought  to  me  from  the  post-office 
this  forenoon.  He  very  thoughtfully  stopped  at  the 
store  on  his  way  up,  supposing,  as  he  said,  that  I 
should  not  like  to  send  Marie  down  the  hill  on  such  a 
warm  day.  He  is  a  kind,  good  neighbor  and  friend." 

She  was  unfolding  a  double  sheet,  closely  written. 

"  Mrs.  Barnes  would  like  to  find  a  boarding-place 
for  a  month,  for  herself  and  Harry.  He  is  just 
Gladys's  age,  you  know.  Elizabeth  has  gone  abroad 
with  her  father,  and  Will  is  at  his  grandmother's  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Newburyport,  Mass.  Mrs. 
Barnes  thinks  the  mountain  air  will  be  better  for 
her,  as  a  change  from  the  seashore.  She  wishes  to 
live  very  quietly,  somewhere  near  us. 

"  She  says :  '  I  should  be  willing  to  take  care  of 
my  own  room;  and  as  to  fare,  with  good  country 
bread  and  butter,  fresh  milk  and  eggs  and  vegetables, 
we  shall  be  satisfied,  even  if  meats  are  indifferent 
and  desserts  uneatable. ' 

"I  know  little  of  farm-fare  hereabouts,  but  that 


212  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

little  makes  me  doubt  if  she  will  not  find  more  soda- 
biscuit  than  good  home-made  bread,  or  if  any  vege 
tables  except  potatoes  and  cabbages  are  frequent 
visitors  to  our  neighbors'  tables.  Yet  it  would  be 
an  unspeakable  comfort  to  have  my  dear  old  friend 
near  me  just  now  for  a  few  weeks." 

"  The  sight  o'  her  bonnie  face  would  be  gude  for  sair 
een,"  responded  Scotch  Elspeth,  briefly,  "We  must 
speir  around  a  bit  for  a  comfortable  nest  for  her. " 

The  subject  was  not  brought  up  again  until  the 
berries  were  boiled  into  jam  of  jelly-like  consistency, 
sealed  up  in  the  gallipots,  which  Elspeth  had  been  at 
great  pains  to  procure,  because  they  "  'minded " 
her  of  those  in  which  the  Dundee  marmalade  is 
preserved,  and  the  jars  had  joined  the  hundred-and- 
fifty  glasses  of  currant  jelly  gleaming  redly  upon  the 
long  shelves  of  the  store-room. 

"Ten  dozen  of  the  marmalade,"  said  Elspeth, 
shutting  the  door  of  the  treasure-chamber.  "An' 
warranted  to  keep  till  the  Day  o'  Judgment,  when, 
as  I  tak'  it,  —  'though  there  '11  be  neither  jelly  nor 
jelly-making,  —  the  deeds  o'  all  men  and  women  will 
be  made  known,  whether  they  've  done  good,  or 
whether  they  've  done  evil.  There  's  religion  in 
jam-making,  as  well  as  in  preaching  and  praying. 
To  scant  the  sugar  and  th'  time  o'  b'iling  is  eenee- 
quity,  according  to  the  Auld  Testament,  and  to  th' 
New." 

The  jars  had  not  been  packed  away  until  they  were 
perfectly  cold.  It  was  now  nearly  eight  o'clock. 
The  children  were  in  their  beds;  Mrs.  Morse  had 
come  by  in  the  afternoon  to  invite  Marie  to  go  home 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  213 

with  her,  her  young  sister  and  her  brother  from 
Philadelphia  having  arrived  unexpectedly  the  pre 
ceding  day.  Mrs.  Paull  gave  her  consent  with 
grateful  alacrity.  Ungracious  as  Marie  had  proved 
herself  of  late,  the  mother-heart  yearned  over  her 
in  unspoken  pity.  A  week  before,  she  had  proposed 
to  the  lonely  girl  to  invite  Carrie  Storrs  to  spend 
a  month  with  them,  a  suggestion  contemptuously 
negatived. 

"I  should  be  ashamed  to  invite  her,  or  any  of  the 
other  girls  to  visit  me  here,"  her  nostrils  curling, 
as  the  odor  of  boiling  sweets  saluted  them.  "No! 
tradespeople  should  associate  with  tradespeople.  I 
do  not  complain  of  my  solitude. " 

Nevertheless,  she  had  gone  off  blithely  with  the 
clergyman's  wife,  with  whom  she  was  always 
friendly.  The  ring  of  the  happy  laugh  borne  back 
to  the  house  from  the  receding  carriage  had  wan 
dered  drearily  through  the  listener's  memory  ever 
since.  It  was  the  echo  of  a  departed  joy,  music 
once  as  familiar  as  the  sight  of  the  radiant  face,  and 
the  strain  about  the  mother's  neck  of  arms  that 
never  rested  there  now. 

This  thought  it  was,  and  not  physical  weariness, 
that  moved  her  to  the  sigh  with  which  she  sank  into 
her  accustomed  seat  on  the  piazza,  and  looked  out 
toward  the  fading  glories  of  the  late  sunset. 

Pink  and  gold  were  changing  into  the  purple 
bloom  of  the  June  twilight  that  does  not  grow  cold 
until  an  hour  before  the  morrow's  dawn.  In  the 
heart  of  the  grove  beyond  the  orchard  the  thrushes 
prolonged  their  evening  service  ;  the  mountains  were 


214  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

stretching  themselves  out  to  sleep,  wrapped  in  robes 
that  had  the  rich  blue  of  a  ripe  plum;  the  rising 
dew  was  freighted  with  the  perfume  of  honeysuckle 
and  cinnamon  roses,  thyme,  bergamot,  and  lavender. 
Elspeth's  kitchen  was  "  redd  up  "  so  thoroughly  that 
all  traces  of  the  day's  business  were  purged  from 
the  air.  Her  range  shone  blackly;  the  sweet  damp 
ness  of  newly  scrubbed  boards  softened  the  dry  heat; 
brasses  and  tins  glimmered  through  the  duskiness  of 
the  side  most  remote  from  the  door.  Comfort, 
cleanliness,  and  rest  abode  within-doors ;  without, 
beauty  and  peace.  As  the  twilight  spread  and 
mounted,  the  young  moon,  a  frail  sickle  of  tender 
light,  with  one  brilliant  planet  so  near  and  so 
directly  under  the  lower  tip  that  one  could  have 
fancied  it  pendent  from  it  by  a  viewless  chain, 
appeared  above  the  broad  band  of  vapor,  brownish- 
dun  below,  dull  crimson  on  the  upper  edge,  that  lay 
behind  the  hills. 

Elspeth  had  another  simile  for  the  crescent  and 
the  star. 

"A  foolish  body  that  knew  naught  o'  the  ways  o' 
the  heavenly  bodies  might  think  the  moon  had 
melted  a  bit,  and  a  drop  had  caught  on  summat, 
instead  o'  coming  all  the  way  to  the  earth. " 

She  had  donned  a  clean  gingham  (she  was  fond  of 
pronounced  plaids)  and  a  white  apron;  a  starched 
kerchief  was  crossed  stiffly  over  her  flat  chest.  Her 
sleeves  were  buttoned  at  the  wrist  in  token  that  her 
day's  work  was  accomplished.  Except  while  she 
waited  at  table,  they  had  been  pinned  up  to  her 
shoulders  ever  since  she  arose  with  the  sun,  and 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  215 

revealed  arms  as  muscular  as  a  prize-fighter's.  She 
had  taken  up  her  stand  against  one  of  the  small 
numerous  pillars  upbearing  the  far-projecting  roof, 
her  knitting  in  hand.  She  never  needed  to  look  at 
her  needles  while  shaping  a  stocking.  She  wore 
none  but  those  of  her  own  fashioning,  and  kept  the 
chubby  legs  of  the  boys  similarly  clad  up  to  the 
herns  of  their  knickerbockers. 

Giving  a  nervous  pull  to  the  ball  in  her  apron 
pocket,  she  continued,  - 

"I  dare  say,  now,  ma'am,  that  Mrs.  Barnes  could 
paint  all  that  into  a  braw  picture." 

"  Hardly,  I  think,  Elspeth.  Nor  could  any  artist. 
Colors  such  as  those  are  not  to  be  bought." 

"  I  'm  thinking  that  ye  may  be  right,  ma'am.  But 
she  could,  no  doobt,  come  as  nigh  to  it  as  any  of 
them.  She  's  a  clever  one,  is  Mrs.  Barnes,  and  that 
knows  how  to  use  her  fingers  as  well  as  her  tongue, 
and,  ye  might  say,  her  head  better  than  either  hands 
or  tongue.  I  wish  she  war  here  the  night,  ma'am, 
to  help  ye  enjoy  what  ye  are  seeing  this  minute. " 

"  You  enjoy  it  with  me,  Elspeth. " 

"  Not  with  the  liking  ye  and  the  likes  o'  ye  have 
for  it,  ma'am.  It 's  no  good  for  ye  to  have  none  o' 
yer  kind  aboot  ye.  Blood  is  blood  "  (she  pronounced 
it  like  "good"),  "and  education  aye  opens  the  door 
o'  the  lips  the  one  to  the  other,  and  the  understanding 
also.  If  Mrs.  Barnes  were  sitting  there  beside  ye, 
there  wad,  mayhap,  less  be  said  than  is  spake  now. 
But  ye  'd  feel  in  yersel'  what  she  war  thinking,  and 
she  the  same  with  you.  It  is  n't  just  now  that  the 
thought  has  taken  tent  o'  me.  Mony  's  the  time 


216  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

when  I  'm  fair  daft  wi'  wondering  how  to  clear 
some  o'  the  thorns  out  o'  yer  road." 

Tears  seldom  seen  there  welled  to  Mrs.  PaulPs 
eyes. 

In  no  external  manifestation  of  inward  discipline 
is  the  difference  between  vulgarity  and  refinement 
more  apparent  than  in  the  habit  of  restraining  or 
of  giving  way  to  watery  grief.  The  weak  woman 
yields  to  the  selfish  tide  if  she  break  a  tea-cup  or 
tear  a  gown;  the  underbred  hireling  wails  aloud  if 
she  has  a  tooth  drawn,  or  cuts  her  finger.  She  who 
has  studied  from  her  cradle  to  be  mistress  of  herself, 
smiles  under  the  knife  that  separates  bone  from 
llesh  and  joint  from  marrow. 

The  spray  she  saw  her  mistress  brush  furtively 
from  her  lashes,  before  she  smiled  up  at  her,  was  a 
token  to  the  servant  of  how  deep  was  the  hold  her 
heroic  fidelity  had  taken  upon  the  lady's  heart. 

"  No  one  has  removed  more  thorns  and  stones  than 
yourself,  my  dear,  faithful  friend.  God  has  given 
me  no  stronger  arm  than  yours  to  lean  upon.  If  I 
do  not  tell  you  this  oftener,  it  is  not  that  I  do  not 
feel  it  continually,  and  do  not  thank  Him  upon 
every  remembrance  of  you.  You  have  continued 
with  me  in  my  temptation,  Elspeth.  He  who  knows 
the  bitterness  of  my  trial  will  reward  you.  I  never 
can." 

Across  the  charmed  silence  of  the  summer  night 
that  lay  between  them  —  solemnly  placid  now  that 
the  thrushes  had  ceased  their  hymning  —  struck  a 
queer  muffled  sound  like  the  whirring  of  a  snap 
ping  clock-spring.  In  another  minute,  Elspeth  had 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  217 

cleared  her  throat,  spoke  as  usual,  —  even  a  little 
more  dryly :  — 

"I'm  aye  awkward  at  threshing  aboot  the  bush, 
ma'ain,  as  ye  know  fu'  well.  What  I  've  had  in  me 
mind  to  say  since  ye  tellt  me  of  Mrs.  Barnes's  letter 
was  to  ask  ye  why  we  can't  give  her  and  the  wee 
laddie  the  north  chamber  yon, "  — •  jerking  her  head 
sidewards  and  backwards  at  the  same  time,  —  "  and 
let  this  be  the  farmhouse  where  she  '11  get  board. 
She  '11  not  be  lacking  bread  and  the  milk,  the  butter 
and  vegetables,  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  in  peace  and 
plenty.  The  laddie  will  be  content  wi'  ours,  and 
there  's  no  sweeter  air  this  side  o'  the  New  Jerusalem. 
Of  that  she  may  be  sure.  And  for  the  two  of  ye, 
ma'am,  it  wad  be  going  back  to  the  lang  syne  she 
spake  of  when  she  first  sent  you  the  box  of  bonnie 
roses  —  d'  ye  mind  ?  " 

She  had  her  reward  in  part  for  the  new  proof  of 
unselfish  devotion  to  her  idolized  mistress  in  the 
animation  with  which  the  plan  was  discussed  and 
finally  adopted. 

A  letter  went  off  to  Brooklyn  next  day. 

In  four  days  thereafter  the  old  school-fellows  slept 
under  the  farmstead  roof,  and  Harry  was  joyfully 
adopted  into  the  family  of  lesser  folk. 

From  the  moment  she  alighted  from  the  carriage 
that  had  brought  her  from  the  market-town  of  Ped- 
dlington,  nine  miles  away,  and  where  was  the  nearest 
railway  station  to  Pequod,  Mrs.  Barnes  was  an  in 
tegral  part  of  the  modest  establishment;  her  light, 
swift  touches  infused  new  spirit  into  everything. 
She  made  the  boys  happy  by  sketching  them  in  their 


218  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

berrying-clothes,  —  clever  portraits  that  anybody 
would  have  known  at  a  glance  or  two.  Each  boy 
rapturously  identified  his  own  berry-basket  and 
broad-brimmed  straw  hat,  although  these  last  were 
exactly  alike  when  bought  at  the  store  week  before 
last,  and  Tom  had  only  since  then  lost  the  band 
from  his,  while  Edwin  had  left  his  on  the  lawn 
one  day,  where  a  hungry  calf  had  found  it  and 
chewed  a  great  piece  out  of  the  brim. 

She  was  the  inspiring  genius  of  the  famous  picnic 
to  the  Big  Patch,  four  miles  away,  a  common  of  forty 
acres,  claimed  by  nobody  since  it  had  settled  down 
bodily,  thirty  years  ago,  into  some  subterranean  cave 
or  bog,  and  now  lay  six  feet  below  the  level  of  the 
surrounding  country,  overrun  with  "high  bush" 
blackberries.  The  Morses  and  Paulls  joined  forces 
in  the  expedition,  Dr.  and  Miss  Lyell,  Mrs.  Morse's 
brother  and  sister,  being  still  the  guests  of  the  par 
sonage  household.  Two  big  open  wagons,  each  one 
drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses,  were  packed  with  people 
and  baskets,  great  and  small.  Nobody  was  left  at 
home  by  the  Paull  party  except  the  big  mastiff 
"Duke,"  who  kept  house  all  day  upon  the  lakeward 
porch.  The  whole  affair  was  an  immense  success ; 
the  abundant  luncheon  was  eaten  in  the  shade  beside 
a  running  stream  from  which  Dr.  Lyell  and  Mr. 
Morse  drew  a  dozen  beautiful  trout  just  before  they 
left  the  Big  Patch  for  home,  and  the  harvesting  was 
six  bushel  baskets  of  great  ripe  berries,  the  finest  any 
of  the  party  had  ever  seen. 

Mrs.  Barnes  it  was  who  furnished  the  incompar 
able  recipe  for  spiced  blackberry  cordial,  which,  in 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  219 

the  hands  of  a  druggist  recommended  by  her,  took 
rank  with  the  medical  profession  as  a  specific  in  a 
certain  class  of  disorders,  and  had  a  large  sale 
throughout  New  York  and  New  Jersey.  She  it  was 
who  triumphed  over  Elspeth's  prejudice  against 
attempting  to  put  up  blackberry  jelly,  because,  as 
she  alleged,  "  it  was  like  many  folk,  ower  dead-sweet 
ever  to  set  into  any  shape  whatever."  Under  Mrs. 
Barnes's  directions  juice  and  sugar  were  put  together 
after  the  former  came,  boiling  hot  and  clear,  from 
the  fire,  then  were  poured  into  glasses  and  set  daily 
in  the  hottest  glare  of  the  sun  until  firm,  and  luscious 
with  the  aromatic  spiciness  brought  by  the  fruit  from 
the  wilderness  where  it  had  companied  with  juniper, 
angelica,  and  sweet  fern. 

As  for  blackberry  vinegar  and  jam,  and  the  black 
berries  canned  for  pies,  and  blackberry  sweet  pickles, 
—  and  all  the  other  ways  she  propounded  of  carrying 
the  wholesome  dainty  over  into  the  winter,  —  is  not 
their  fame  perpetuated  in  many  a  farmstead  in  the 
Pequod  Valley  ? 

I  saw  the  other  day,  in  a  catalogue  of  small  fruits, 
the  "  Barnes  Blackberry  "  in  a  place  of  honor,  and 
smiled  to  think  how  direct  was  its  lineage  from  the 
roots  brought  that  same  autumn  from  the  Big  Patch, 
and  set  out  by  Mr.  Morse  in  the  very  shadow  of  the 
century- old  church.  The  Dominie  was  a  skilful  hor 
ticulturist,  and  in  a  few  seasons  brought  the  wild 
fruit  to  a  size  and  flavor  that  did  honor  to  her  for 
whom  it  was  named. 

The  Paull  purse  was  the  heavier  by  many  dollars 
for  Mrs.  Barnes's  visit,  and  the  Paull  hearts  lighter 


220  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

for  the  every-day  ministrations  of  the  practical  "  all- 
around  woman. "  So  far  from  pitying  her  friend  for 
the  fall  in  her  fortunes,  and  bewailing  the  necessity 
of  engaging  in  "business,"  she  bade  her  "God 
speed  "  in  the  cheeriest  of  tones,  wished  that  every 
woman  in  the  land  had  a  profession,  the  independ 
ence  to  engage  in  the  actual  duties  of  the  same,  and 
the  skill  to  make  her  handiwork  excellent  in  itself. 

"  Not  appealing  to  the  public  because  she  chanced 
to  be  born  a  woman,  and  therefore  an  object  of 
charity  !  "  protested  the  latter-day  prophetess. 
"When  the  world  acknowledges  that  it  is  more 
honorable  to  make  capital  pickles  than  to  paint 
pictures  which  are  only  tolerable  because  a  woman 
'  executed  '  them ;  better  worthy  of  an  intelligent 
creature  to  bring  bread-making  to  perfection  than  to 
hawk  poor  prose  and  worse  verse  from  publisher  to 
publisher ;  nobler  to  cultivate  strawberries  well  than 
to  go  into  the  teacher's  office  for  a  piece  of  bread,  — 
the  real  Woman's  Age  will  be  here." 

For  Marie,  Mrs.  Barnes  had  several  new  books 
and  half  a  dozen  pieces  of  music,  —  among  them 
three  duets  which  the  donor  and  her  daughter  Eliza 
beth  had  practised  together.  They  liked  them  so 
well  that  Marie,  who  was  a  far  better  performer  than 
either  of  them,  must  learn  them.  She  could  play 
them  with  Mrs.  Barnes  while  the  latter  was  at  Pine- 
hurst.  (At  Mrs.  Paull's  request  the  guest  found  a 
name  for  the  place  before  she  had  been  there  three 
hours.)  After  her  return  to  Brooklyn,  Marie  could 
practise  with  her  mother.  Incited  by  her  praise  and 
bright-heartedness,  Marie  aroused  herself  into  a 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  221 

passable  show  of  interest  in  passing  events  and  her 
present. 

She  actually  opened  the  piano  of  her  own  accord, 
and  played,  alone  and  in  the  dark,  passages  from 
oratorios  and  other  sacred  compositions  on  the  second 
Sunday  evening  of  Mrs.  Barnes's  stay  at  Pinehurst. 
Her  touch  was  exquisite,  and  her  rendering  of  the 
numbers  full  of  taste  and  feeling. 

"  I  cannot  thank  you  as  I  would  for  the  good  work 
you  have  begun  in  her,"  said  her  mother  to  her 
friend.  "I  have  been  sadly  disheartened  about  her 
for  a  long  time.  I  seem  to  have  lost  touch  with  her 
since  my  illness  last  winter.  Until  then,  we  were 
every  whit  as  intimate  as  you  and  Elizabeth.  My 
heart  sinks  in  looking  forward  to  what  may  be 
the  outcome  of  the  estrangement.  Estrangement! 
Annie !  can  you  conceive  what  pain  it  costs  a  mother 
to  use  that  word  with  reference  to  her  very  own 
child  ?  " 


CHAPTER   XIII. 


Build  a  little  fence  of  trust 

Around  to-day ; 
Fill  the  space  with  loving  work, 

And  therein  stay. 
Look  not  through  the  sheltering  bars 

Upon  to-morrow ; 
God  will  help  thee  bear  what  comes 

Of  joy  or  sorrow. 

M.  F.  BUTTS. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  two  women  were  sitting  upon  the  honey- 
suckled  porch ;  Elspeth  had  drawn  her  chair 
to  the  kitchen-door ;  her  hands  were  folded  in  Sab 
bath  quiet  upon  her  snowy  apron. 

"Why  do  you  look  forward  ?  "  said  Mrs.  Barnes, 
quietly. 

Mrs.  Paull  gave  a  surprised  little  laugh. 

"  Because  I  cannot  help  it.  My  tendency  has 
always  been  to  borrow  trouble." 

"Yet  I  don't  know  an  honester  woman.  You 
would  be  wretched  if  you  had  to  live  upon  borrowed 
capital." 

"  This  is  altogether  different. " 

"  Yes ;  you  would  borrow  money  from  your  fellow- 
men.  You  try  to  negotiate  a  loan  of  to-morrow  and 
next  year  from  Him  who  has  made  you  an  ample 
allowance  for  to-day,  and  forbidden  you  to  anticipate 
supplies." 

"  Ah-h-h  !  "  a  light  breaking  in  upon  the  speaker's 
mind.  "I  had  forgotten  that  you  belong  to  Nurse 
Williams's  school  of  what  the  dear  old  soul  calls 
'  The  Royal  Readers. '  She  began  once  to  explain 
their  creed,  but  we  were  interrupted,  and  other  things 
pressed  it  out  of  my  mind.  As  nearly  as  I  can  recall 
it,  her  system  of  belief  is  predestination,  simple  and 

15 


226  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

severe, —  the  persuasion  that  'what  is  to  be  will  be,' 
no  matter  what  we  do  or  say.  I  call  that  downright 
fatalism,  —  the  blind  faith  of  the  Mussulman,  not  the 
rational  belief  of  the  Christian. " 

"  At  its  baldest,  it  is  more  rational  than  the  other 
extreme,  of  'what  is  to  be  may  not  come  to  pass.' 
Mrs.  Williams  got  the  phrase  '  The  Royal  Road  ' 
from  Mr.  Stevens,  the  New  York  evangelist  of  whom 
you  have  heard  me  speak  so  often.  I  went  with  her 
to  his  church  on  the  evening  set  by  him  for  telling 
his  congregation  how  to  find  and  to  keep  in  '  The 
Royal  Road  to  Happiness.' 

"  What  a  congregation  that  was ! "  she  resumed, 
musingly.  "I  had  been  a  pastor's  wife  for  fifteen 
years,  and  thought  myself  fairly  well  versed  in  varie 
ties  of  human  nature ;  but  I  was  in  a  different  sphere 
from  the  law-and-order  orbit  in  which  I  had  previ 
ously  revolved.  There  were  men  and  women  in  good 
clothes  about  me,  most  of  them  evidently  belonging 
to  the  laboring  classes ;  but  there  were  men  who  were 
ragged  and  dirty.  Shop-girls  were  there  in  cheap 
finery  and  imitation  jewelry,  and  close  beside  them 
women  in  black  stuff  gowns  and  black  shawls  pinned 
bias  across  their  bosoms,  and  bonnets  that  were 
meant  for  mourning,  and  cotton  mitts  upon  hands 
that  were  hardened  by  the  wash-board.  There  are 
unsuspected  saints  among  working-women  of  that 
type,  and  their  Sunday  clothes  are  always  mourning 
suits.  Mixed  in  with  these  respectable  folk  were 
others  with  handkerchiefs  tied  over  their  heads  and 
knotted  under  their  chins,  and  gowns  stiff  with  dirt, 
that  were  falling  apart  by  their  own  weight,  and 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  227 

faces  that  seemed  never  to  have  known  soap,  or  even 
a  'dry-wash,'  —  faces  seamed  by  sin  and  trouble  and 
weary  waiting  for  the  good  time  which  they  were 
sure,  by  now,  would  never  come  to  them.  Men 
skulked  in  corners  who,  you  could  not  help  thinking, 
would  skulk  into  corners  in  Paradise  from  the  force 
of  habit,  if  they  ever  got  there, —  a  species  of  human 
fungi  that  shuns  the  light,  and  fattens  in  the  dark, 
and  upon  rotten  things ;  and  bolder-faced  men,  who 
stood  conspicuously  in  the  aisles,  and  crowded  up 
near  the  pulpit,  at  sight  of  whom  you  could  n't  help 
feeling  for  your  pocket-book,  and  were  surprised  that 
it  was  still  there. 

"  Such  a  '  mix  '  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of 
humanity  I  had  never  beheld  before ;  yet  there  was  n't 
a  policeman  to  be  seen,  and  there  was  no  confusion, 
beyond  what  was  inseparable  from  the  massing  of  so 
many  and  such  various  sorts  of  people  in  a  limited 
space.  There  was,  it  is  true,  the  buzzing  of  whis 
pering,  and  the  indescribable  sound  of  clothing  rub 
bing  against  the  seats  and  against  other  clothing, 
but  it  stopped  all  at  once  when  the  preacher  walked 
upon  the  platform.  He  is  not  tall,  and  he  is  some 
what  thick-set  in  figure,  with  a  kind,  honest  face. 
It  beamed  with  benignity  in  looking  over  the  motley 
audience.  Without  invocation  or  preface,  he  began 
somewhat  in  this  fashion :  — 

"  '  There  must  be  five, —  maybe  there  are  six  kinds 
of  politics  represented  here  to-night,  —  Democrats, 
and  Republicans,  and  Mugwumps,  and  Prohibition 
ists,  and  Anarchists,  and  Home  Rulists, —  and  the 
great  party  of  Look-out-for-Number-One-ists.  I  am 


228  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

not  here  to  find  fault  with  any  one  of  these  parties. 
Saint  Paul  once  preached  in  a  town  where  they  wor 
shipped  thirty  thousand  gods.  In  fact  there  were  so 
many  that  a  law  had  been  passed  against  inventing 
any  more  idols.  But  in  case  any  of  the  heathen 
gods  should  have  been  overlooked,  they  had  put  up 
an  altar  with  this  inscription  on  it:  "To  the  Un 
known  God." 

"  '  That  was  something  like  what  you  ward  politi 
cians  would  call  "  hedging  "  —  eh  ? ' 

"Of  course  everybody  laughed,  and  there  was 
some  clapping,  and  a  cheer  from  one  corner.  He 
got  them  quiet  with  one  gesture  of  his  uplifted  hand. 
Then  he  went  on :  - 

" '  Saint  Paul  was  a  long-headed  man,  who  had  been 
a  lawyer  before  he  was  a  preacher.  Yes  !  and  a  tent- 
maker  to  boot.  He  paid  his  own  salary  in  one  town 
by  working  at  his  trade.  So  he  preached  to  this 
idol-ridden  people  that  this  Unknown  God  "whom," 
he  said,  "ye  ignorantly  worship,"  was  the  Lord  whom 
they  were  feeling  after,  and  had  not  found. 

" '  This  brings  me  to  what  I  am  here  to  say  to  you 
this  evening.  God,  that  made  the  world  and  all 
things  that  are  therein,  He  is  the  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  the  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of  kings; 
and  He  so  loved  the  world,  —  this  sinful,  fallen, 
soiled,  and  sorrowing  world  of  which  you,  my 
brother,  and  you,  my  sister,  and  I  who  speak  to  you, 
are  a  part, —  that  He  came,  Himself,  in  the  person 
of  His  Son,  to  die  for  us!  I  want  all  of  you, 
each  one  here  present,  whether  he  has  any  ear 
or  not,  any  voice  or  none, —  whether  he  ever  sang 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  229 

before  in  his  life  or  not,  —  to  join  ine  now  in 
singing,— 

"  All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name  !  " 

"Alice!  you  never  heard  such  singing!  How 
they  kept  the  tune  and  time  I  do  not  know ;  but  they 
did,  and  carried  the  hymn  clear  through  with  a  rush 
and  a  shout.  When  the  old  woman  on  my  left  — 
who  must  have  been  a  rag-picker,  if  one  might  judge 
by  the  dirt  on  her  worsted  hood  and  the  grime  on 
her  hooked  fingers  —  joined  her  cracked  screech  to 
the  rounded  sweetness  of  dear  Nurse  Williams  on 
my  right,  in,  - 

'  Oh  that  with  yonder  sacred  throng 

We  at  His  feet  may  fall  1 
Join  in  the  everlasting  song, 
And  crown  Him  Lord  of  all  1  ? 

I  just  got  my  face  between  my  two  hands,  and  cried 
harder  than  I  ever  let  any  baby  of  mine  cry.  It 
was  wonderful." 

She  was  excited  in  the  telling.  Into  the  eloquent 
interval  dividing  the  two  parts  of  the  narrative, 
Mrs.  Paull's  voice  stole,  sweet  and  thrilling:  — • 

"  And  I  heard,  as  it  were,  the  voice  of  a  great 
multitude,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as 
the  voice  of  mighty  thunderings,  saying  :  '  Hallelujah  ! 
for  the  Lord  G-od  Omnipotent  reigneth !  and  let  us 
be  glad  and  rejoice,  and  give  honor  to  Him!'  " 

"Nurse  Williams  thought  of  that,  for  she  whis 
pered  to  me,  before  I  dared  show  my  face  again,  — 

"  '  Ain't  it,  for  all  the  world,  like  a  chapter  right 
out  of  the  Book  of  Revelation  ?  ' 


230  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"The  prayer  came  next.  I  had  been  afraid  of 
something  approximating  irreverence,  but  I  need 
not  have  feared  it.  It  was  not  like  other  people's 
prayers,  of  course,  but  his  tone  and  language  showed 
that  he  knew  in  whose  presence  he  stood.  He  told 
the  Lord  that  all  of  us,  small  and  great,  were  seek 
ing  one  and  the  same  thing,  —  happiness,  here  and 
hereafter,  — and  entreated  Him  to  help  '  the  weak, 
unworthy  speaker  '  to  direct  us  into  the  right  way,  - 
the  plain  path,  —  the  Royal  Road. 

"  There  was  another  hymn,  '  Come,  thou  Fount  of 
every  Blessing, '  and  then  he  took  his  text :  — 

" '  Your  Heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need 
of  these  things. 

" '  Yes ! '  he  blurted  out,  '  knows  so  much  better 
what  things  we  need  and  how  much  we  need  them, 
that  we  may  well  be  ashamed  of  ourselves,  fretful, 
babyish  fools  that  we  are,  for  presuming  to  give 
Him  any  information.  It 's  sillier  and  more  impu 
dent  than  if  the  boy  who  peddles  peanuts  on  Water 
Street  should  stop  Jay  Gould's  carriage  as  he  is 
hurrying  up-town  to  deposit  a  cool  million  in  the 
bank,  and  give  him  his  opinion  as  to  the  best  way  of 
making  money.  It  is  not  in  any  mortal  to  be  as 
disrespectful  and  officious  to  another  mortal,  not 
even  to  king  or  president,  as  it  would  be  for  the 
wisest  saint  in  earth  or  in  heaven  to  dictate  to  the 
Almighty.  Ask  Him  what  you  like,  but  put  it  in 
spirit,  if  not  in  speech,  into  four  words,  —  "  Thy 
will  be  done ! " 

"'That  is  to  say:  "if  what  I  want  isn't  good  for 
me,  please,  0  Lord,  read  my  foolish  prayer  back 
wards,  and  don't  give  it  to  me !  "  ' 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  231 

"He  gave  incident  after  incident,  proving  what 
mistakes  we  make  in  praying  for  what  God  in  His 
wisdom  and  mercy  refuses  to  let  us  have,  and  how 
we  blunder  into  wrong  and  dangerous  ways,  scream 
ing  and  kicking  at  this  bolted  door,  and  trying  to 
pick  the  lock  of  that,  and  to  blow  the  door  of  another 
off  the  hinges,  and  the  folly  of  it  all,  and  the  love 
'  that  saves  us  from  the  consequences  of  ourselves  ' 
(that  was  his  phrase),  and  at  last  he  got  to  the  sure 
prescription  for  securing  peace  of  mind  here  and 
blessedness  hereafter.  It  was  to  throw  ourselves 
upon  Christ  for  salvation,  and  let  Him  have  us 
entirely  for  His  own,  and  to  lease  our  time,  as 
God  means  and  commands  us  to  do,  for  one  day  only, 
and  to  recollect  that  it  is  a  lease,  and  that  the 
Landlord  holds  the  insurance,  pays  the  taxes,  and 
keeps  the  premises  in  repair. 

" '  Trust  Him  with  your  soul,  and  then  with  the 
life  that  now  is.  The  smartest  man  in  the  world 
cannot  manage  more  than  one  day  at  a  time,  and 
the  man  who  lived  a  hundred  years  never  owned  two 
days  at  once. 

"'  You  may  say,  "Since  I  cannot  help  myself, 
I  '11  make  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and  not  worry  about 
to-morrow."  That  was  the  trick  of  fools  who  lived 
three  thousand  years  ago.  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die."  They  didn't  know  how 
much  that  day  was  worth.  Just  as  your  baby  would 
as  lief  chuck  a  five-dollar  gold-piece  into  the  gutter 
as  a  cent. 

" '  A  day !  oh,  my  brother !  take  the  beautiful 
new  thing  into  your  hand  and  look  at  it !  Fresh 


232  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

i 

from  God's  mint,  stamped  with  His  image  and 
superscription,  His  present  to  you,  and  to  you  alone, 
made  expressly  for  you,  and  not  another  like  it  in 
all  the  universe,  or  in  eternity,  past  or  present. 
Hold  it  with  both  hands,  and  get  all  the  good  you  can 
out  of  it.  You  may  never  have  another  day. 
Another  thing,  —  Every  day  that  is  counted  out  to 
you  is  registered  in  His  Book  of  Remembrance,  and 
when  you  have  had  the  last  one,  the  ledger  will  be 
shown  to  you.  "  Thomas  Smith  One  New  Day" 
with  the  date  set  opposite  to  it,  and  a  memorandum 
of  the  condition  it  was  in  when  it  got  back  to  the 
Book.  For  it 's  bound  to  go  back !  You  can't  melt 
it  down,  nor  tear  it  up,  nor  "  sweat "  it,  nor  burn  it. 
Whatever  God  makes  and  stamps  is  immortal. ' 

"He  gave  us  thirty  minutes  of  such  talk,  and 
nobody  moved  to  go  out.  I  can  convey  a  very  faint 
idea  of  his  style,  and  none  of  his  manner  of  saying 
these  things.  He  concluded  by  asking  each  one  of 
us  to  begin  to  walk  in  the  Royal  Road  the  very  next 
morning. 

" '  Monday  is  a  tough  day  for  it,  I  know, '  he  said. 
1  It  does  seem  sometimes  as  if  the  devil  were  bound 
for  a  season  over  Sunday,  and  got  out  of  limbo  with 
a  leap  and  a  howl,  like  a  giant  maddened  by  Jersey 
lightning,  before  honest  folks  are  out  of  bed  Monday 
morning.  There 's  all  the  more  reason  why  you 
should  choke  him  off  at  the  start.  Now,  listen !  as 
soon  as  you,  my  sister, '  —  and  his  eyes  seemed  to 
take  in  Mrs.  Williams,  my  rag-picker,  and  myself, 
— '  wake  up  to-morrow,  say  your  prayers.  They 
need  not  be  long.  A  great  English  preacher,  Row- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  233 

land  Hill  by  name,  used  to  say  that  he  liked  very 
short  prayers,  such  as  are  jerked  out  of  a  man  when 
sorrow  or  temptation  grabs  him  all  of  a  sudden. 
He  said  they  reached  heaven  before  the  devil  got 
a  chance  at  them.  You  can  get  yours  over  in  a 
minute  or  less.  "  Give  me  this  day  my  daily 
bread,"  will  do,  if  you  mean  all  you  say,  —  food  for 
the  soul,  food  for  the  heart,  food  for  the  mind,  and, 
last  and  least,  food  for  the  body.  Don't  sit  down 
to  cry  over  the  mistakes  you  made  yesterday.  Don't 
pipe  your  eye  over  what  you  are  afraid  is  coming 
to-morrow.  You  may  never  see  to-morrow,  and  if 
you  do,  it  will  be  to-day  by  the  time  it  gets  here ; 
and  God  —  who  has  never  broken  a  promise,  and 
never  will  break  one  —  promises  that  you  shall  have, 
strength  given  for  that  day.  A  man  told  me,  when  I 
was  a  little  shaver,  that  all  the  fortune  he  cared  to 
have  was  one  little  pocket  in  which  he  could  always 
find  a  sixpence.  All  the  fortune  of  time  that  you 
need  —  and  this  your  Heavenly  Father  knows  —  is 
just  one  little  day. 

"'Trim  your  day  clean  at  both  ends,  and  don't 
waste  a  scrap  of  it.  If  you  are  a  housekeeper,  Mon 
day  is  washing-day.  You  would  n't  mind  wash 
ing-day  so  much  if  it  was  n't  for  the  thought  of  how 
much  longer  it  takes  to  iron  than  to  wash  clothes. 
You  've  got  nothing  to  do  with  Tuesday  until  Tuesday 
comes.  Put  it  out  of  your  mind.  Say,  "I  won't 
think  of  it!  "  and  keep  your  word.  You  '11  be  sur 
prised  to  find  how  much  more  strength  you  '11  have 
for  to-day,  if  you  don't  fritter  it  away  worrying  over 
to-morrow.  When  Tuesday  comes,  take  hold  of  it, 


234  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

too,  with  a  brave  heart,  and  clean,  empty  hands,  that 
have  none  of  Monday's  mud  sticking  to  them. ' 

"But,  Alice,  I  am  talking  you  into  the  Land  of 
Nod !  I,  who  have  scruples  against  evening  services 
in  hot  weather !  You  know  my  tongue  of  old,  and 
that  you  have  the  magic  art  of  drawing  me  out 
and  on." 

"You  cannot  stop  there!"  said  Mrs.  Paull,  with 
sportive  decision.  "  The  sermon  is  incomplete  with 
out  the  application.  Oh,  Annie,  talk  is  so  easy  and 
so  cheap  !  You  will  think  me  a  reprobate  for  say 
ing  that  I  distrust  many  people  whose  business  it  is 
to  preach  and  to  teach  religion.  They  all  fall  into 
one  rut,  —  '  Do  this,  and  live  !  Do  that,  and  die ! ' 
Half  of  the  time  they  say  it  with  the  professional 
side  of  them,  and  live  their  own  lives  out  just  as 
other  fallible  mortals  live  out  theirs.  I  should  like 
to  know  something  of  your  evangelist's  six-days- 
in-the-week  walk  and  conversation.  While  I  am 
trenching  upon  irreverent  talk  of  the  profession 
which  is  above  every  other,  I  may  as  well  be  frank. 
Is  his  the  Squeersian  principle  of  first  spelling  a 
word,  and  then  going  out  and  doing  it  ?  " 

Her  forced  lightness  did  not  cheat  her  companion 
into  forgetfulness  of  the  significant  truth  that  Ernest 
Paull  was,  for  years,  the  popular  superintendent  of  a 
Sunday-school  and  a  telling  speaker  in  Sabbath- 
school  conventions,  also  a  notable  worker  in  other 
departments  of  church  enterprise.  Her  answer  was 
grave  and  direct :  — 

"  He  does  the  thing  before  he  spells  it.  He  gives 
away  more  than  half  his  income  yearly,  and  gives 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  235 

himself  wholly  to  what  he  considers  '  the  reasonable 
service  of  every  saved  soul.'  His  capacious  lungs 
are  full  of  oxygen,  and  his  bodily  health  is  perfect, 
notwithstandipp;  the  tremendous  labors  of  a  day  that 
begins  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning.  He  rises  then 
to  go  to  a  breakfast-room  furnished  and  supported  by 
himself  for  tramps  and  newsboys.  He  asks  God's 
blessing  upon  a  substantial  meal,  and,  when  it  is 
over,  talks  to  the  five  or  six  hundred  men  and  lads 
there  assembled  of  the  duties  and  temptations  of  the 
day,  and  of  God's  love  and  care,  and  of  His  expecta 
tion  that  they  will  love  and  serve  Him,  and  carry 
everywhere  with  them  the  thought  that  God's  eye  is 
upon  them.  His  parish  comprises,  as  he  once  said, 
everybody  who  needs  him.  He  is  constantly  on  the 
alert  for  the  opportunity  to  do  '  little  deeds  of  kind 
ness.  '  Somebody  has  found  fault  with  him  that  he 
is  always  '  on  the  side  of  the  under  dog.'  His  sym 
pathies  go  out  most  quickly  to  those  whose  cry  is, 
4  No  man  careth  for  my  soul. '  He  would  as  readily 
run  up  five  flights  of  stairs  to  pray  with  a  sick  man 
or  woman  at  the  top  of  a  tenement  house,  as  to 
enter  a  church  to  electrify  an  audience  with  his 
sound  common  sense,  his  all-pervading  spirituality, 
and  the  spirit  of  consecration  that  is  manifest  in 
every  word  and  look.  It  matters  nothing  that  people 
call  him  an  unpractical  enthusiast  and  a  fanatic. 
He  knows  that  every-day  practice  is  the  very  foun 
dation  of  his  doctrine  and  action.  His  private 
life  is  the  best  possible  commentary  upon  his 
teachings." 

"Elspeth!"  called  Mrs.  Paull,  over  her  shoulder, 


236  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  move  your  chair  out  here.  Mrs.  Barnes  is  talking 
of  the  Royal  Road. " 

Something  in  the  aspect  of  the  upright  figure  fill 
ing  up  the  kitchen  door  suggested  to  the  mistress  the 
isolation  of  the  follower  who  had  forsaken  all  other 
friends  for  her,  and  with  it  arose  a  misgiving  lest, 
in  her  own  satisfaction  in  the  society  of  her  early 
friend,  she  had  left  the  faithful  creature  too  much 
to  herself  of  late.  With  the  instinct  of  true  gentle 
hood  that  never  deserted  her,  Mrs.  Barnes  turned 
her  chair  slightly  towards  Elspeth  as  she  joined  the 
ladies,  still  at  a  respectful  distance. 

"  I  was  about  to  tell  Mrs.  Paull  how,  after  hearing 
Nurse  Williams's  Mr.  Stevens,  I  went  home  deter 
mined  to  try  for  myself  his  rule  of  living  by  the 
day.  Mrs.  Williams  left  me  to  my  own  thoughts 
during  most  of  the  journey  back  to  Brooklyn.  She 
saw  that  my  mind  and  heart  were  full,  and,  as  she 
has  told  me  since,  contented  herself  with  praying 
for  me.  My  husband  was  not  at  home,  and  I  had 
several  hours  to  myself.  As  soon  as  I  laid  off  my 
hat,  I  got  out  my  Bible.  I  would  take  nothing  upon 
man's  word  without  appeal  to  the  Law  and  the 
Testimony. 

"  I  had  said  over  to  myself  times  without  number, 
c  Take  no  thought  for  to-morrow,'  very  much  as  a 
Roman  Catholic  wears  a  scapular,  and  a  pagan  a 
charm  against  the  Evil  Eye.  Now,  when  I  sat  down 
with  the  one  desire  to  take  God  at  his  word,  the  text 
took  on  a  new  meaning.  By  the  way,  the  Revised 
Version  puts  it  yet  more  clearly  and  strongly  than 
the  Old.  It  says :  — 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  237 

"  '  Be  not  therefore  anxious  for  the  morrow,  for  the 
morrow  will  be  anxious  for  itself.  Sufficient  unto  the 
day  is  the  evil  thereof? 

"  That  was  the  first  verse  I  looked  up.  On  the  same 
page  I  read,  as  if  I  had  never  seen  it  until  then : 

"'  Be  not  anxious  fur  your  life,  what  ye  shall  eat, 
or  what  ye  shall  drink,  nor  yet  for  your  body,  ivhat  ye 
shall  put  on.  Behold  the  birds  of  the  heaven,  that  they 
sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  or  gather  into  barns ; 
and  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not 
of  much  more  value  than  they? 

"'  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow. 
Ttiey  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin.  Yet  I  say  unto 
you  that  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed 
like  one  of  these.'9 

"I  stopped  there  to  read  those  last  words  over 
again.  All  that  man's  wealth  and  wisdom  and  skill 
could  accomplish  —  the  tribute  of  Tarshish  and  the 
isles,  the  gifts  of  Sheba  and  Seba  —  could  not  array 
this  mightiest  monarch  of  the  earth  like  one  of  these 
wild  flowers.  I  took  the  little  preacher  in  imagina 
tion  between  my  fingers,  gazed  into  the  glowing  cup, 
and  touched  the  velvet  petals  reverently,  my  heart 
well-nigh  breaking  with  love  and  penitence. 

"  The  rest  followed  naturally  :  - 

" c  If  G-od  so  clothed  the  grass  of  the  field,  which 
to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall 
He  not  much  more  clothe  you?' 

"  You,  Annie  Barnes !  whose  life  He  has  thus  far 
crowned* with  goodness  and  mercy;  whose  cup  over 
flows  with  blessings;  you  who  are  His  dear  child, 
whose  name  is  graven  upon  his  hands ;  you  for  whom 


238  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Christ  died  that  you  might  live  and  reign  with  Him 
forever.  By  this  time  I  was  prepared  for  the  tender 
reproach, — 

"'  0  ye  of  little  faith!' 

"Why,  Alice  Paull !  I  told  Him  then  and  there 
upon  my  knees,  between  my  sobs,  that  I  had  never 
had  one  atom  of  real  faith,  and  asked  Him  to  give  me 
just  one  more  trial.  Still  on  my  knees,  I  turned  the 
leaves  of  my  Testament. 

"  'If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father 
in  heaven  give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  Him' 

UiCome  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy- 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  And  ye  shall  find 
rest  to  your  souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy,  and  My 
burden  is  light.'' 

"That  is,  when  He  is  taken  utterly,  simply,  and 
joyfully  at  His  word. 

"  And  after  the  miracle  of  the  loaves  and  fishes, 
—  really  no  more  of  a  miracle  than  happens  often 
and  often  in  the  lives  of  those  who  are  on  the  alert 
to  interpret  his  wonderful  providences, — 

"  '  0  ye  of  little  faith!  Why  reason  ye  among  your 
selves  because  ye  have  no  bread  ?  Do  ye  not  perceive, 
neither  remember  the  five  loaves  of  the  five  thousand, 
and  how  many  baskets  ye  took  up  ? 9 

"  '  Whoso  shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child  '  — 
believe  that  I  mean  what  I  say,  and  that  every  jot 
and  tittle  of  my  Word  shall  come  to  pass  — '  is  the 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven. ' 

" '  All  things  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  prayer,  — 
believing,  — ye  shall  receive? 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  239 

" '  The  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  numbered.'' 

" '  Ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows.' 

"' Boast  not  thyself  of  to-morrow.'' 

" '  T'ney  that  seek  the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good 
thing? 

"'  Casting  all  your  care  upon  Him,  for  He  careth 
for  you.1 

"  But  you  and  Elspeth  know  them  all,  and  could 
recall  a  hundred  more,  one  and  all  bearing  the  same 
message  to  the  simple  of  heart:  '  Trust  Me  to  do 
what  is  right  and  best  for  you,  and  1  will  be  your 
refuge.  Underneath  you  are  the  Everlasting  Arms. 
Lie  peacefully  and  happily  within  them.'  Reading 
them  in  the  new  white  light  that  streamed  upon  the 
page,  1  was  as  one  who  had  found  great  treasure. 

"  Marie !  dear  child ! "  holding  out  her  hand  as  a 
light  step  fell  upon  the  floor  behind  her.  "Mrs. 
Morse  approached  me  with  a  petition,  after  church 
this  morning,  which  she  dared  not  prefer  to  you. 
The  young  man  who  officiates  as  organist  goes  away 
this  week  for  a  month's  vacation.  She  says  that  if 
you  will  take  his  place  for  that  time  you  will  gratify 
Mr.  Morse  and  herself,  and  delight  the  congregation. 
I  could  not  answer  for  you,  of  course. " 

"Certainly  not." 

Marie  spoke  in  a  lifeless  tone,  and  did  not  return 
the  pressure  of  the  firm  fingers  enfolding  hers.  She 
stood  perfectly  still,  one  hand  on  the  back  of  Mrs. 
Barnes's  chair.  The  impulse  that  sent  her  to  the 
piano  had  exhausted  itself  in  her  long  practising. 

"Would  you  like  to  take  the  position,  my  love  ?  " 
her  mother  queried. 


240  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 


is  for  you  to  say,  mother." 
is     always     "mother  "     nowadays;     never 

i." 


"That 

It     was 
"  mamma. 

"I  do  not  wish  to  force  your  inclinations.  I 
thought  you  might  desire  to  oblige  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Morse,  who  are  so  kind  to  you. " 

"Very  well,  then.  I  will  do  it,"  as  passively 
as  she  had  spoken  before. 

Mrs.  Barnes  was  not  easily  put  down.  A  wet 
blanket  had  no  appreciable  effect  upon  her  spirits; 
nothing  short  of  a  deluge  drowned  her  energies. 
She  pressed  the  small  limp  hand  to  her  warm 
cheek,  smooth  as  a  sixteen-year-old  girl's. 

"These  same  deft  fingers  will  serve  you  well, 
should  you  ever  care  to  become  an  organist  in  a  city 
church.  I  know  a  woman  who  plays  very  little 
better  who  gets  a  salary  of  one  thousand  dollars  a 
year. " 

She  felt  an  electric  quiver  in  the  fingers  she 
praised,  and  heard  the  irregular  breathing  that 
went  with  the  girl's  exclamation, — 

"  One  thousand  dollars  !  Oh,  Mrs.  Barnes,  do  you 
really  think  I  could  ever  get  half  of  that  ?  " 

"Easily,  should  there  occur  a  vacancy  in  a  city 
organ-loft.  When  you  have  left  school,  if  you  still 
wish  it,  we  must  see  about  it." 

Marie  was  mute  for  a  minute,  then  spoke  dream 
ily,  but  with  suppressed  passion  that  startled  her 
companions :  — 

"I  wish  I  could  earn  some  money !  I  wish  I  could 
earn  five  hundred  dollars!  It  is  a  dreadful  thing 
to  be  a  woman,  —  in  any  circumstances.  It  is  intol- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  241 

erable  to  be  poor  as  well.  Good-night,  Mrs.  Barnes. 
Good-night,  mother.  I  am  tired  almost  to  death !  " 

She  went  off  without  offering  to  kiss  either  of 
them.  Elspeth  arose  and  followed  her  silently. 
Coldness  and  ingratitude  could  not  weaken  her 
attachment. 

"  And  you  blame  me  for  looking  forward  anxiously 
to  her  future ! "  sighed  Mrs.  Paull.  "  She  is  more 
of  an  enigma  to  me  every  day.  A  mother  should 
know  her  daughter. " 

"  A  girl  of  seventeen  does  not  know  herself.  Yours 
is  forcing  her  way  single-handed  through  the  debat 
able  ground,  trying  to  ford  the  current  'where  the 
brook  and  river  meet. '  A  majority  of  girls  take  to 
misanthropy  and  mysticism  and  melancholy  during 
the  transition  period,  catch  it  from  one  another,  or 
inhale  the  bacteria  of  that  miasmatic  region  as  they 
caught  measles  and  whooping-cough  when  babies. 
The  worst  thing  that  could  happen  to  Marie  would 
be  to  fall  heiress  to  a  million  dollars  to-morrow.  I 
am  well  content  that  she  should  not  have  the  five 
hundred  for  a  year  or  two.  Alice,  darling,"  drop 
ping  the  jesting  strain,  "  take  your  first  step  in  the 
Royal  Road  by  committing  that  precious  creature 
entirely  for  this  one  night  into  the  hands  of  Him 
who  careth  for  her  as  for  you. " 

"I  will  try!"  The  answer  was  low  and  not 
prompt. 

"Say  <I  will,'  dear  heart!  That  is  the  Bible 
phrase. 

" '  1  will  praise  the  Lord  ivhile  1  have  my  being? 

"  '  As  for  me  and  my  house ,  we  will  serve  the  Lord? 

16 


242  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  < I  will  abide  in  thy  tabernacle  forever? 

"  '  Therefore,  will  we  not  fear,  though  the  earth  be 
removed,  and  the  mountains  be  carried  into  the  midst 
of  the  sea:  " 

" I  will!" 

The  lips  of  the  friends  met  in  a  mute  seal  upon 
the  covenant. 

The  holy  calm  of  the  summer  night  rested  upon 
the  waters  and  field  and  mountain,  and  upon  the 
troubled  sea  of  human  thought,  like  a  Sabbath  bene 
diction.  Puffs  of  perfume,  now  warm,  now  cool, 
were  the  welcome  of  the  pines  to  the  visits  of  the 
breezes  wandering  down  from  loftier  heights  by 
way  of  the  northern  gorge  through  which  the  lake 
escaped  to  the  valley. 

"'As  the  mountains  are  round  about  Jerusalem,  so 
the  Lord  -is  round  about  His  people,  from  henceforth, 
even  forever  !  '  "  said  Mrs.  Barnes,  by  and  by.  "  That 
is  the  oratorio  of  your  hills.  It  came  to  me  when  I 
saw  the  amphitheatre  of  the  valley  from  the  top  of 
Baldmount,  on  my  way  from  Peddlington,  and  I 
hear  it  continually.  Henceforth,  even  forever! 
Never  off  guard!  There  is  another  proof-text  for 
you." 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


Any  child  of  God,  who,  in  any  adequate  way,  believes 
that  he  can  partake  of  the  divine  nature,  knows  that  he 
has  strength  enough  for  any  business  that  looks  the 
right  way ;  that  is,  which  helps  to  bring  God's  kingdom 
into  the  world.  If  you  are  working  with  Aladdin's 
lamp,  or  with  Monte  Cristo's  treasures,  you  are  not 
apt  to  think  you  will  fail.  Far  less  will  you  think  that 
you  will  fail  if  you  are  working  with  the  omnipotence  of 
the  Lord  God  behind  you.  —  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

TWO  years  had  flown  since  Ernest  Paull  passed 
from  the  sight  and  ken  of  his  family  and  the 
friends  of  his  better  days.  Since  the  vessel  that  bore 
him,  under  his  false  name,  left  New  York  Harbor, 
no  more  word  or  token  of  his  existence  had  come  to 
his  wife  than  if  he  had  fallen  at  night  into  mid- 
ocean,  unseen,  and  never  been  missed  by  his  fellow- 
voyagers.  In  the  business  world,  where  he  used  to 
consider  himself  a  personage  of  note,  he  was  missed 
as  little  as  would  have  been  a  pebble  thrown  into 
a  lake  a  hundred  years  ago.  His  disappearance  had 
created  wonderfully  little  sensation  at  the  time,  so 
little  that  his  brother-in-law  —  to  whose  promptness 
and  energy  was  due  the  fact  that  few  knew  of  the 
elopement,  and  fewer  of  the  embezzlement  until  the 
scandal  was  desiccated  by  time  into  odorlessness  — 
smiled  sometimes  to  himself  in  reflecting  that  the 
queer  combination  we  know  as  self-love  would  have 
smarted  had  the  criminal  suspected  the  truth. 

It  would  mortify  many  and  console  none  of  us  to 
comprehend  the  absolute  insignificance  of  the  human 
unit  in  the  sum  of  the  ages. 

Mrs.  PaulPs  removal  from  city  to  country  helped 
to  keep  the  disgraceful  story  quiet,  and  her  infre 
quent  appearance  in  scenes  where  she  had  once  been 


246  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

prominent  completed  the  effacement  of  herself  and 
her  affairs  from  the  minds  of  mere  acquaintances. 
Tom  and  Edwin,  sturdy  and  happy  in  the  free 
spaciousness  of  the  Pinehurst  woods  and  orchard, 
gradually  ceased  to  think  of  the  absent  parent,  whose 
image  had  faded  entirely  from  Gladys's  memory. 
Their  mother  was  their  teacher,  co-worker,  and  play 
mate,  and  the  sun  of  the  domestic  system.  Her 
country  neighbors  nodded  and  smiled  in  cordial 
good  fellowship  in  meeting  her  upon  the  highway, 
or,  as  happened  oftener,  in  mountain  passes,  where 
the  grass  grew  high  and  flowers  bloomed  between  the 
wheel  tracks,  —  stepping  lightly,  head  erect  and 
cheeks  glowing,  —  a  son  on  each  side.  Sometimes 
all  three  carried  baskets  for  nuts  or  berries,  or  for 
roots  to  be  transplanted  in  the  garden  that  was  the 
talk  of  the  region  for  beauty  and  variety. 

In  church  she  sat  in  her  own  pew,  her  children 
about  her,  earnest  and  devout,  a  chastened  serenity 
in  eyes  and  upon  lip  that  was  a  wonder  to  those  who 
had  gleaned  fragments  of  her  history  and  pitied  the 
forsaken  wife  and  toiling  mother.  Her  hair  had 
gathered  frost  during  the  terrible  winter  of  two 
years  agone,  while  the  face,  beneath  the  abundant 
locks  rolled  back  from  her  forehead,  gained  placidity 
and  almost  youthful  bloom. 

"  I  know  now  why  the  hoary  head  is  said  to  be  a 
crown  of  glory, "  said  Lanier,  one  September  evening, 
as  he  lay  at  her  feet,  his  head  in  her  lap.  "Your 
hair  is  a  veritable  diadem,  and  sheds  a  sort  of  radi 
ance  over  your  face,  such  as  falls  from  the  nimbus 
about  saints'  heads  in  the  pictures  of  the  old  mas- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  247 

ters.       It   is   mysterious,    but    beautiful.      Yet " 
raising  a  hand  to  the    head    bent   above   his  —  "  it 
gives  me  a  heartache.     Mother,  you  are  the  bravest 
woman  I  ever  knew !     This  "  —  stroking  the  silvered 
coil  —  « is  the  only  tell-tale. " 

"  It  is  the  habit  of  the  Laniers  to  turn  gray  early 
in  life, "  said  Mrs.  Paull,  in  cheerful  evasion.  "  Since 
this  is  so,  I  should  be  thankful  that  it  is  becoming. 
I  don't  want  to  be  frightful  in  my  children's  eyes. " 

"  That  could  never  be,  had  you  small-pox,  compli 
cated  by  leprosy.  I  wonder  sometimes  if  you  are  as 
happy  as  you  look. " 

"  Happier  —  often.  The  heart  knows  its  deepest 
bliss  no  less  than  its  own  bitterness.  God  has  been 
—  He  is  so  loving-kind  to  me  that  I  have  no  excuse 
for  gloomy  thoughts.  Every  day  is  crowned  with 
goodness,  and  He  never  lets  me  doubt  that  all 
my  steps  are  ordered  by  Him.  How  could  I  be 
discontented  ?  " 

The  boy  lay  looking  into  the  heart  of  the  fire  built 
of  pine  cones,  of  which  a  great  basketful  stood  at 
the  corner  of  the  hearth.  The  night  was  rainy, 
the  clouds  rushing  down  the  valley  before  a  strong 
northeast  wind.  The  ceaseless  moan  of  the  pines 
was  blent  with  the  surf-like  roar  of  the  grove  of  oaks 
and  hickories  behind  the  house.  Mother  and  son  had 
the  room,  dusky-red  with  firelight,  to  themselves. 

Lanier's  "  coaching  "  engagement  had  been  renewed 
during  each  of  the  vacations  that  had  passed  since 
his  first  visit  to  Keene.  He  had,  nevertheless,  con 
trived  to  visit  his  mother  in  the  September  of  both 
years,  besides  spending  two  Christmases  at  Pine- 


248  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

hurst.  He  had  arrived  this  afternoon  upon  a  three 
days'  furlough,  and  her  soul  basked  in  his  presence 
with  grateful  delight. 

As  her  firstborn  grew  in  knowledge  of  books  and 
of  men,  the  tie  knitting  the  heart  of  the  man  she 
had  gotten  from  the  Lord  to  the  heart  of  the  mother 
strengthened  and  shortened.  He  was  very  like  her 
in  feature  and  manner,  —  a  resemblance  peculiarly 
striking  to-night  in  the  ruddy  half-light  that  colored 
both  faces  alike. 

"He  is  lover,  friend,  and  son,  all  in  one,"  she  had 
said  to  Mrs.  Barnes,  in  one  of  the  impetuous  bursts 
of  confidence  that  were  rarer  with  her  now  than  of 
yore.  "  Pulse  of  my  pulses,  core  of  my  heart !  " 

In  the  close  folding  of  his  left  hand  in  hers  now, 
the  yearning  fondness  of  the  regards  bent  upon  the 
lineaments  she  thought  so  handsome,  the  ring  and 
thrill  of  her  voice  as  she  addressed  him,  one  read 
all  this  and  more.  Sometimes,  while  she  talked  of 
him,  or  listened  to  others'  praise  of  her  eldest  son, 
she  blushed  like  a  girl  at  mention  of  her  lover's 
name,  and  laughed  at  her  own  sweet  folly.  Maternal 
love  of  this  peculiar  quality  and  power  is  seldom 
seen  in  wives  whose  hearts  rest  in  full  satisfaction 
in  their  husbands'  affection.  God  gives  in  this  life 
no  richer  compensation  for  disappointment  in  the 
dearest  hope  of  a  woman's  heart  than  is  to  be  found 
in  the  chivalric  fondness  of  her  sons. 

"  You  do  not  weary  of  your  Royal  Road,  then  ?  " 
resumed  Lanier,  at  length,  smiling  thoughtfully. 

"  Who  does,  who  has  found  it  ?  " 

"It  has  been  the  path  of  peace  to  you,  evidently, 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  249 

mother  dear.  I  suspect,  nevertheless,  that  few  are 
willing  to  walk  in  it  until  more  attractive  avenues 
are  closed.  Without  hope  and  ambition,  youth 
would  have  no  dreams;  and  what  is  youth  without 
dreams  ?  " 

"Hope!  ambition!  do  you  mean  that  we  leave 
them  behind  us  when  we  set  our  feet  upon  the  King's 
highway  ?  My  darling,  then  begins  the  only  hope 
worthy  of  the  name, —  sure  and  blessed, —  an  anchor 
that  never  drags. 

" i  For  1  am  persuaded?  says  Paul,  '  that  neither 
death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor 
things  present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  powers,  nor 
height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other  creature  shall  be  able 
to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  which  is  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord?  And  '  Shall  He  not  also  with 
Him  freely  give  us  all  things  ? '  And  again,  'All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God, 
who  are  the  called  according  to  His  purpose.'' 

"The  beloved  disciple,  whose  head  rested  upon 
the  Master's  heart  while  He  said  His  parting  words 
to  his  disciples,  asserts,  as  one  who  knows  whereof 
he  speaks, — 

" '  And  this  is  the  boldness  which  we  have  towards 
Him,  that  if  we  ask  anything  according  to  His  will, 
He  heareth  us. '  Can  hope  be  grounded  upon  a  firmer 
rock  ?  " 

"  Abstractly  considered  —  no  !  All  of  us,  who  hope 
that  we  are  Christians,  yield  intellectual  assent 
to  these  things.  The  trouble  is  that  the  promises 
seem  vague,  and  fulfilment  afar  off,  when  the  ques 
tion  is  of  a  note  to  be  met  next  week,  or  bread  to  be 


250  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

bought  to-morrow,  when  there  is  no  money  in  hand 
with  which  to  buy  it.  Steadfast  souls  —  women's 
souls  —  can  fix  their  thoughts  and  concentrate  their 
energies  upon  to-day's  tasks  and  interests;  but  what 
of  a  man's  duty  to  provide  for  those  of  his  own 
household  ?  " 

"Provision  for  to-morrow  may  be,  it  often  is,  a 
part  of  to-day's  duty  —  " 

"Aha!" 

"  You  interrupted  me !  I  said  '  provision  '  —  not 
anxiety.  Not  to  make  intelligent  provision  for  what 
experience  and  common  sense  tell  us  must  be  met, 
is  fatuous  and  childish. 

"  Tom  and  Edwin  had  their  little  gardens  laid  out, 
last  spring,  side  by  side,  and  I  gave  each  the  same 
quantity  and  kind  of  seeds.  Tom  got  all  his  in  on 
Monday;  and  on  Wednesday,  Thursday,  Friday,  and 
Saturday,  scratched  open  the  rows  to  see  if  they  were 
sprouting  and  likely  to  come  up.  Edwin  let  his 
alone.  It  is  useless  to  say  which  has  the  better 
show  of  vegetables  by  this  time.  I  try  to  keep  one 
text  continually  before  the  eyes  of  my  heart,  — 'And 
having  done  all,  to  stand.''  Some  err  in  stopping 
short  of  doing  with  their  might  whatsoever  their 
hands  find  to  do,  not  working  while  the  day  lasts. 
The  hard  task  for  me  is  to  '  stand '  when  I  see  noth 
ing  else  that  my  hands  can  do  just  now.  As  to  next 
week's  note,  make  the  best  arrangements  to  meet  it 
that  your  judgment  and  ingenuity  can  devise;  then 
stand  still,  and  see  what  great  things  God  will  work. 
So  with  to-morrow's  bread.  Look  narrowly  at  the 
work  laid  to  your  hand  for  to-day,  to  see  if  this  may 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  251 

not  include  getting  together  cents  enough  to  buy  a 
loaf  for  to-morrow's  breakfast.  Perhaps  —  God 
knows  whether  or  not  this  is  to  be,  and  what  good 
end  is  to  be  gained  by  it  —  you  are  to  suffer  protest 
and  loss  of  credit,  and  to  go  hungry.  If  so,  you  can 
rest  submissively  in  the  belief  —  which  is  the  sub 
stance  of  things  hoped  for  —  that  the  day's  strength 
will  come  with  the  day's  trial.  Oh,  my  boy,  this 
is  not  a  rainbow  theory  with  me,  but  a  tower,  tried 
and  found  steadfast,  into  which  I  have  run  and  been 


Lanier  pressed  first  one,  then  the  other,  of  her 
hands  to  his  lips. 

"  Precious  mother !  "  he  murmured  in  strong  emo 
tion.  "  The  sight  of  your  practice  goes  leagues  upon 
leagues  further  to  convert  me  than  your  texts  and 
your  sermon.  Where  is  there  another  woman  who 
would  make  such  a  bright,  beneficent  life  out  of  such 
poor  material  ?  " 

"  Poor  material !  Don't  say  that ! "  a  hasty  terror 
in  her  tone.  "  Not  while  I  have  my  children  —  and 
work  to  do  for  God  and  man.  Dear!  have  you 
noticed  that  blasted  oak  on  the  hillside  up  there, 
-  just  where  a  gap  in  the  woods  gives  you  the  first 
glimpse  of  Pinehurst,  and  the  lake,  and  the  moun 
tains  ?  Your  uncle  spoke  of  cutting  it  down,  but  I 
would  not  let  him  do  it.  It  is  an  object-lesson  to 
me,  a  symbol,  a  likeness  of  myself." 

"My  pretty,  graceful  mother!  that  I  will  not 
listen  to!" 

"Hush!"  laughingly  pulling  her  face  away  from 
the  hand  he  would  have  laid  upon  her  mouth.  "  It 


252  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

was  struck  by  lightning  eight  or  ten  years  ago,  — 
that  tree,  which  is  not  so  old  as  one  might  think, 
—  and  the  bark  stripped  from  one  side.  At  least  half 
of  the  trunk  is  bare.  All  the  same,  it  bears  leaves 
and  acorns,  and  carries  aloft  a  branchy  crown  all 
summer  long,  and  you  ought  to  have  seen  its  foliage 
last  fall.  Rich  purplish  crimson,  that,  as  the  snows 
and  cold  rains  came,  gathered,  as  it  were,  gray  ashes 
upon  the  upper  surface  of  the  leaves,  before  they 
changed  to  a  comfortable  sober  brown  they  held  all 
winter  long,  and  until  the  young  buds  pushed  them 
off  in  April.  The  edges  of  the  torn  bark  have 
healed  healthily,  making  a  long  lip  against  the  flayed 
trunk ;  all  the  sap  necessary  for  the  life  of  the  tree 
is  carried  up  through  that  strip.  I  have  stood  by 
that  tree  with  my  hand  laid  upon  the  bark,  until  I 
could  be  sure  that  I  felt  it  throb  sympathetically. " 

Her  voice  had  fallen,  as  she  went  on;  the  words 
were  uttered  more  and  more  slowly,  until  she  ceased. 
Lanier  drew  himself  to  her  side,  wound  his  arm 
about  her,  and  laid  his  head  against  her  shoulder. 
Verbal  response  was  impossible,  and  needless. 

"I  told  you  that  I  saw  Marie  this  morning,"  was 
his  next  remark. 

"Yes,  and  that  she  is  looking  well." 

"Well  and  handsome.  She  will  be  a  splendid 
woman  soon.  She  says  she  is  quite  happy  with  her 
teaching  and  her  organ.  How  did  she  get  the  situa 
tion  ?  There  would  be  a  lively  competition  for  the 
vacant  place  in  a  church  like  St.  Gudule's. " 

"  Your  uncle  has  friends  in  the  vestry,  and  exerted 
his  influence.  This  Marie  must  not  suspect.  Much 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  253 

as  she  desired  the  place,  she  would  throw  it  up 
to-morrow  if  she  guessed  to  whom  she  owes  it." 

"  How  absurd,  and  how  shamefully  ungrateful !  I 
must  talk  her  out  of  that  nonsense  some  day. " 

"  Better  leave  the  subject  alone.  The  misguided 
child  believes  honestly  that  she  does  right  to  be  angry 
with  my  brother.  I  imagine  that  one  motive  of  her 
perseverance  in  trying  to  get  the  position  of  music 
teacher  at  Mrs.  Marcy's  and  that  of  organist  in  St. 
Gudule's,  was  the  desire  to  free  herself  from  obliga 
tions  to  him." 

"Which  she  can  never  do." 

"  She  thinks  that  she  can.  We  must  leave  her  to 
nurse  her  fancied  grievance  until  her  eyes  are  opened 
by  the  logic  of  events,  or  until  God  touches  her  heart 
to  gentler  judgment  of  her  best  friends. " 

"  Does  she  support  herself  entirely  ?  " 

"  She  has  steadily  refused  to  accept  anything  from 
me  for  a  year.  I  have  no  idea  what  Mrs.  Marcy 
pays  her.  Her  salary  at  St.  Gudule's  is-  seven 
hundred  dollars,  but  I  should  not  have  known  that 
had  not  your  uncle  told  me.  She  grows  more 
reserved  as  time  goes  on." 

The  brother  set  his  lower  jaw  sternly. 

"  Does  she  visit  you  often  ?  " 

"  I  contrive  to  see  her  at  least  once  in  ten  days, 
but  her  duties  prevent  her  from  coming  often  to  us. 
Of  course  she  can  no  longer  pass  her  Sundays  at 
home.  I  am  afraid,"  she  went  on  reluctantly, 
"  that  she  is  inclined  to  be  severe  with  herself  in  the 
matter  of  personal  expense.  Mrs.  Marcy  told  me 
the  last  time  I  called  there,  while  I  was  waiting  for 


254  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

Marie  to  finish  a  lesson,  that  'Miss  Paull  had  too 
little  recreation.  Except  for  the  long  walk  which 
she  takes  every  day  unless  in  very  stormy  weather, 
she  leaves  the  house  but  once  during  the  week,  and 
that  is  on  Friday  evening  to  attend  choir-rehearsal. 
She  declines  all  invitations  to  friends'  houses,  and 
to  places  of  amusement  such  as  most  young  people 
enjoy. '  I  mentioned  this  to  Marie  when  she  came 
in  and  Mrs.  Marcy  left  us.  She  answered  that  she 
now  belonged  to  the  working  classes,  and  had  no 
time  to  squander  upon  pleasure-taking.  She  dresses 
very  plainly,  —  almost  shabbily.  I  do  not  think  she 
has  bought  a  new  gown,  or  even  hat,  since  she  began 
to  take  care  of  her  own  finances. " 

"  Marie  miserly  I "  amused  and  incredulous.  "  She 
used  to  be  an  incorrigible  spendthrift.  Mother"  — 
as  if  struck  by  a  startling  thought  —  "  but  no ;  that 
could  hardly  be ! " 

"That  she  is  pinching  herself  in  order  to  send 
money  out  of  the  country  ?  "  Mrs.  Paull  spoke  out  the 
suspicion  he  had  repressed.  "  She  would  do  it  were 
there  occasion,  or  if  she  imagined  there  were.  I  am 
sure  that  she  has  no  foreign  correspondent,  or  I 
should  have  discovered  it  during  the  two  months  she 
spent  here  this  summer.  She  would  hardly  conceal 
the  circumstance  from  me,  I  think,  even  had  not 
the  mail  enlightened  me.  Indeed,  had  she  opened 
communication  with  her  father,  I  believe  that  her 
high  sense  of  honor  and  of  what  loyalty  to  him 
demanded  would  have  driven  her  to  me  with  the 
intelligence.  She  is  fearless  in  her  very  wilfulness. 
Poor  child !  she  sees  everything  now  through  a  dis- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  255 

torted  medium.  Ah,  well !  In  God's  good  time  all 
will  be  right." 

Another  interval  of  silence  followed.  Such  are 
unmistakable  indices  of  perfect  communion  of  spirit. 
Common  friendship  demands  the  reassurance,  at 
decorous  distances,  of  mutual  regard  and  thought- 
fulness. 

Lanier  leaned  forward  to  pile  more  logs  upon 
the  sinking  coals,  putting  them  on  one  at  a  time, 
apparently  interested  in  the  consumption  of  each. 

"Mother,"  without  withdrawing  his  eyes  from  this 
operation,  "may  I  ask  you  one  question  ?  " 

"As  many  as  you  like,  my  son,"  steadily  and 
cheerfully. 

"  You  told  me,  a  while  ago,  that,  besides  paying  the 
interest  to  Uncle  Roger,  you  had  deposited  in  the 
savings  bank,  last  year  and  this,  six  hundred  dollars. 
At  that  rate  you  will  have  paid  off  the  whole  debt  in 
eight  years  more.  Should  he  who  laid  the  debt 
upon  you  return  to  America  then,  — -  have  you  ever 
thought  what  would  be  your  duty  or  your  incli 
nation  ?  " 

He  could  not  see  the  sickly  pallor  the  fire-glow 
did  not  veil,  or  the  sharp  quiver  that  shook  the  light 
from  her  eyes.  He  divined,  through  the  nameless 
sympathy  welding  heart  to  heart,  that  a  short,  fierce 
battle  against  powerful  odds  kept  her  silent  for  the 
instant  that  elapsed  before  her  hand  rested  upon 
his  head. 

"  My  darling,  for  months  the  thought  never  left 
me,  sleeping  or  waking!  When  I  began  to  learn 
how  to  take  God  at  His  word,  and  not  to  meddle 


256  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

with  a  future  which  is  all  His,  and  none  of  it  mine, 
I  asked  Him  —  as  I  suppose  Paul  besought  Him  to 
take  away  the  thorn  in  his  flesh  —  to  remove  from 
me  the  dread  and  the  doubt  and  the  vain  planning, 
to  show  me  how  to  leave  the  wanderer  and  all  per 
taining  to  him  in  His  safe,  wise,  loving  hands.  He 
answered  my  prayer,  not  as  he  answered  Paul,  —  for 
Paul  was  stronger  than  I,  and  could  bear  more,  - 
but  by  setting  my  thoughts  free  from  that  one  tor 
turing  subject,  that  I  might  study  and  obey  His  will 
in  and  for  me  in  the  present.  Should  the  hour  ever 
come  for  decision  and  action,  His  grace  will  be 
sufficient  for  me,  His  wisdom  will  not  be  withheld. 
Until  then,  let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead. " 

While  mother  and  son  talked  together  that  stormy 
September  night,  the  choir  of  St.  Gudule's  rehearsed 
the  music  selected  for  the  approaching  Sabbath. 
The  new  organist  had  been  inducted  into  office  but 
two  months  before.  Her  youth  and  sex  had  told 
against  her  in  the  judgment  of  musical  critics  in  the 
congregation,  and  with  at  least  two  of  the  quartette 
choir.  The  correctness  and  brilliancy  of  her  tech 
nique;  the  taste  and  spirit  with  which  she  inter 
preted  the  most  difficult  passage  submitted  to  her, 
broke  down  the  prejudice  of  the  listeners  below-stairs ; 
the  almost  austere  gravity  of  her  demeanor,  the 
respect  with  which  she  hearkened  to  suggestions, 
and  her  willingness  to  obey  them,  silenced  her  coad 
jutors.  She  was,  apparently,  bent  upon,  as  the  basso 
put  it,  "cold  business,"  comprehending  why  she 
was  there,  and  with  no  eye  or  ear  for  anything  but 
duty. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  257 

She  wore  to-night  a  black  merino  gown,  as  simply 
fashioned  as  a  nun's,  and  a  close  black  felt  hat,  one 
blue  velvet  bow  nestling  in  the  puffs  of  golden  hair 
the  only  touch  of  color  in  her  costume.  Her  face, 
unsmiling  and  intent,  as  her  eyes  followed  the  score, 
might  have  belonged  to  a  woman  twice  her  years  for 
any  sign  it  gave  of  frivolity ;  there  was  not  a  tinge 
of  coquetry  in  her  reception  of  the  greetings  of  her 
companions  at  her  entrance,  or  of  the  encomiums 
passed  upon  her  execution  when  the  rehearsal  was 
over. 

"Thank  you,"  to  one,  and  "You  are  very  kind," 
to  another,  were  spoken  without  a  rise  of  color,  and 
with  the  least  possible  smile  consistent  with  the  fine 
breeding  that  marked  every  motion  and  syllable. 

The  tenor,  who  was,  after  the  usual  custom  of 
tenors,  young  and  thin,  with  fair  hair  and  a  sweep 
ing  mustache,  did  not  venture  upon  an  improvement 
of  his  very  slight  acquaintanceship  with  her,  but 
got  himself  into  his  ulster  and  waited  for  the  soprano 
to  pull  on  her  rubber  sandals  before  offering  to  see 
her  home.  She  was  not  very  young,  and  not  at  all 
pretty;  but  she  was  accessible,  and  that  went  for 
much  with  a  man  who  was  bashful  when  not 
intrenched  behind  a  sheet  of  music.  The  basso, 
being  thicker-skinned,  and  a  married  man  of  forty, 
took  courage  to  approach  the  organist,  as  she  but 
toned  her  gloves,  preparatory  to  assuming  waterproof 
and  umbrella. 

"I  had  nearly  forgotten  something  which  our 
excellent  rector  asked  me  to  pass  over  to  you  this 
evening,  Miss  Paull,"  he  said,  in  the  rollicking 

17 


• 
258  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

way  which  men  of  his  calibre  confound  with  well- 
bred  ease.  "It  frightens  me  to  think  what  might 
have  happened  had  I  carried  it  home  in  my  pocket. 
I  dare  say,  now,  you  would  never  have  spoken  to  me 
again,  —  maybe  would  have  put  me  out  in  my  best 
solo  next  Sunday." 

Marie  had  listened  politely  up  to  this  moment,  her 
fair  face  composed  and  serious.  The  swift  change 
that  swept  over  it  as  she  saw  the  superscription  on 
the  envelope  extended  by  his  pudgy  hand,  left  him 
dumb  and  staring. 

"It  was  more  like  a  flash  of  lightning  than  any 
thing  else,"  he  said  to  his  wife  when  he  got  home. 
He  did  not  even  recollect  whether  or  not  she  had 
thanked  him  by  more  than  a  bend  of  the  head  in 
passing  him  on  her  way  to  the  gallery-stairs.  "I 
should  n't  wonder  if  't  was  from  her  sweetheart 
abroad.  The  handwriting  was  a  man's,  and  the 
postmark  some  outlandish  place  with  a  foreign  stamp 
on  it. " 

The  rain  was  falling  fast  when  Marie  reached  the 
street;  the  car  which  she  hailed  and  boarded  was 
full  to  both  platforms.  In  obedience  to  the  conduc 
tor's  "  Step  forward  there,  please  !  "  room  was  made 
for  her  just  inside  the  rear  door.  She  leaned,  weak 
and  sick,  against  the  casing,  the  letter  clutched 
tightly  in  her  hand.  It  was  addressed  in  her 
father's  well-remembered  handwriting,  to  "Miss 
Marie  Roche  Paull  In  care  of  Rev.  Dr.  Egbert 
Lee,  Rector  of  St.  Gudule's,  New  York  City,  N.  Y., 
United  States  of  America. " 

In  the  ten  blocks  that  lay  between  the  church  and 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  259 

Mrs.  Marcy's  door,  she  had  time  to  review  the  futile 
attempts  she  had  made  to  open  communication  with 
the  exile  since  she  had  posted  that  first  letter  in 
Brooklyn  to  "  Mr.  Paul  Morgan,  Nice,  France. " 

Carrie  Storrs's  device  of  setting  the  United  States 
consul  at  Nice  upon  the  track  had  elicited  a  civil 
reply  from  Mr.  Oliver's  secretary,  to  the  effect  that 
no  American  of  the  name  she  had  given  could  be 
found  in  Nice.  An  Englishman  calling  himself 
"  Ernest  Morgan  "  had  passed  a  winter  there,  then 
gone  on  to  Monte  Carlo.  A  guarded  letter  of  inquiry 
to  the  far-famed  gambling  resort  met  with  even 
less  success,  no  reply  being  returned.  Baffled  and 
despairing,  Marie  desisted  from  other  efforts  until 
Carrie  herself  went  abroad,  a  year  ago,  engaging 
not  to  abate  her  energetic  attempts  to  find  Mr.  Paull 
until  she  could  put  his  address  in  his  daughter's 
hand.  The  rattle-brained,  warm-hearted  ally  wrote 
regularly,  and  at  surprising  length  for  a  traveller, 
to  her  whom  she  facetiously  dubbed  "Telemacha," 
always  hopefully  (it  is  so  easy  and  pleasant  to  hope 
to  all  lengths  when  we  have  little  at  stake  ourselves), 
always  to  no  purpose,  so  far  as  the  object  of  her 
search  was  concerned. 

"If  I  had  dared  take  papa  into  confidence,  some 
thing  might  have  been  done  through  the  police,"  she 
said  to  poor  Marie  upon  her  return.  "  But  that 
would  never  have  done,  you  know." 

Marie  did  know,  as  well  as  if  her  only  confidante 
had  imparted  the  further  information  that  once,  when 
she  "wondered,"  tentatively,  to  her  father,  "if  they 
might  not  run  over  Mr.  Paull  in  their  travels,"  he 


260  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

retorted  —  tartly  for  a  good-natured  and  well-trained 
American  father  — •  that  "  nothing  was  less  likely,  or, 
for  that  matter,  less  desirable. " 

It  argued  a  depth  of  devotion  which  was  pathetic, 
in  view  of  the  unworthiness  of  the  object  and  the 
scant  food  that  kept  it  alive,  that  the  daughter's 
faith  and  love  never  wavered  through  all  these 
eventless  months.  She  had  believed  that  her  father 
still  lived  and  loved  her;  affection  and  fancy  hung 
fadeless  wreaths  above  the  visage  enshrined  in  her 
heart  of  hearts, —  idealized  him  into  a  stainless  hero, 
an  uncomplaining  martyr.  Her  life  had  but  one 
purpose,  to  make  amends  to  him  for  all  he  had 
suffered,  to  repair  with  her  young  life  the  wreck  his 
enemies  had  made  of  his.  It  was  monomania, 
flourishing  the  more  rankly,  and  striking  its  roots 
more  deeply,  for  the  shade  in  which  she  kept  it. 

Here  was  her  reward!  Clutching  the  letter  still 
more  tightly,  she  sprang  from  the  car  at  Mrs. 
Marcy's  corner,  ran  through  the  rain,  without  rais 
ing  her  umbrella,  to  the  sidewalk,  and  up  the 
steps,  let  herself  in  with  her  latch-key,  and  flew  up 
two,  three  flights  of  stairs,  to  her  room,  to  fall  upon 
her  knees  and  tear  open  the  precious  missive.  She 
must  read  it  thus  —  for  God  had  sent  it  to  her  —  at 
last !  at  last ! 

"  My  own  sweet  daughter  —  " 

"  I  knew  it !  I  knew  it !  oh,  my  darling,  my  noble 
suffering  angel !  "  she  cried  aloud,  kissing  the  words 
over  and  over.  "0  God!  give  me  strength  to  read 
it  all ! " 

It  was  long, —  although,  as  he  said,  he  was  uncer- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  261 

tain  whether  or  not  it  would  ever  meet  her  eyes. 
He  had  seen  in  a  New  York  paper  a  notice  of  the 
appointment  of  "  Miss  Marie  Paull,  daughter  of  the 
late  Ernest  Paull,"  to  the  position  of  organist  in 
the  church  of  St.  Gudule's,  Rev.  Egbert  Lee,  D.D,, 
rector.  He  had  written  to  her  before,  and  repeat 
edly,  —  letters  which  her  silence  proved  to  him  had 
not  reached  her.  This  was  one  more  crumb  cast 
upon  the  waters.  Perhaps  the  well-meant  surveil 
lance  of  her  lawful  guardians  might  extend  even  to 
communications  sent  under  cover  to  a  stranger. 
He  prayed  her,  should  she  receive  this,  to  tell  him 
of  herself, —  his  best  beloved, —  of  her  brothers  and 
of  Gladys  (blessings  on  the  baby,  who  must,  by 
now,  have  forgotten  her  unhappy  father),  and  of  the 
mother,  for  whom  he  had  not  a  word  of  censure. 

"I,  who  know  her  Spartan  integrity,  her  rigid 
sense  of  what  she  believes  to  be  duty,  her  steadfast 
adherence  to  the  road  which  she  conceives  is  laid 
out  by  Right,  expect  nothing  from  her  clemency. 
Believing,  as  she  does,  in  the  clever  fabrications  of 
my  persecutors,  she  cannot  act  differently.  I  name 
her  daily  in  my  prayers  as  one  of  the  noblest  of 
women.  It  is  not  her  fault,  but  that  of  the  adviser 
who  has  her  ear,  that  we  are  parted  by  half  the 
breadth  of  the  globe.  I  hope  that  your  brother,  as 
her  favorite  child,  is  the  comfort  and  help  she  used 
to  prophesy  he  would  prove.  If  so,  she  misses  me  no 
longer.  I  am  persuaded  other  things  of  you,  my 
precious  child,  the  little  Marie  who  promised  to 
marry  papa  when  she  should  grow  up,  —  my  house 
hold  fairy. 


262  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

"  You  might  not  care  to  renew  that  promise  now, 
could  you  see  how  gray  I  am,  and  what  lines  care, 
toil,  and  longing  have  engraved  in  the  face  you  once 
loved  to  kiss.  I  have  worked  hard  and  against  odds 
in  strange  lands,  and  am  poorer  now  than  when  1 
left  my  native  shore.  I  should  not  like  to  have  my 
bonny  bird  see  where  and  how  I  live,  and  how 
shabby  are  my  clothes.  The  hunger  and  the  husks 
are  mine,  but  not  the  riotous  living.  The  vision  of 
your  innocent  eyes,  if  nothing  else,  would  prevent 
that.  And  there  is  no  earthly  home  for  the  exile 
whom  you,  at  least,  will  never  believe  to  be  a  prod 
igal.  The  knowledge  of  this  should  make  the  thought 
of  the  rest  that  remaineth  the  sweeter.  I  shall  see 
you  there,  if  never  again  here. " 


CHAPTER    XY. 


Is  that  beast  better  that  hath  two  or  three  mountains 
to  graze  upon,  than  a  little  bee  that  feeds  on  dew  or 
manna,  and  lives  upon  what  falls  every  morning  from 
the  storehouse  of  heaven,  clouds,  and  Providence  ? 

JEREMY  TAYLOR. 

Drop  thy  still  dews  of  quietness, 

Till  all  our  strivings  cease ; 
Take  from  our  souls  the  strain  and  stress, 
And  let  our  ordered  lives  confess 

The  beauty  of  Thy  peace. 

JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

"  V  T  7AKE  up,  boys!  and  see  what  a  white  Christ- 
V  V       mas  we  have !  "  called  Mrs.  Paull  from  the 
foot  of  the  stairs. 

She  was  answered  by  the  rush  windowward  of 
four  naked  feet  upon  the  floor  overhead,  and  shrill, 
joyous  outcries  from  two  pairs  of  healthy  lungs. 
She  opened  the  front  door  and  stepped  out  upon  the 
porch,  where  Lanier's  shovel  and  Elspeth's  broom 
were  at  work.  It  had  snowed,  not  fast,  but  perse- 
veringly,  for  fourteen  hours.  At  three  o'clock  on 
Christmas  morning  the  cold  became  too  intense  for 
any  further  downfall.  The  wind  did  not  rise  with 
the  sun,  —  nor  did  the  thermometer. 

Mrs.  Paull  looked  out  upon  a  smooth  expanse  of 
what  might  have  been  down  from  a  curlew's  breast, 
soft,  light,  and  delicately  dyed  into  the  purest  shade 
of  pink.  The  ice-chained  lake  was  a  spotless  plain 
into  which  the  lawn  sloped  by  imperceptible  degrees ; 
the  naked  branches  of  the  deciduous  trees  were  out 
lined  to  the  tiniest  tip  with  the  feathery  fall ;  the 
pines  bowed  in  dumb  majesty  beneath  the  weight  of 
royal  ermine.  The  still,  keen  air  was  a  luxury  to 
the  respiratory  organs,  and  stung  faces  and  fingers 
with  the  prick  of  electric  needles.  Every  mountain 
was  a  Mont  Blanc  against  the  fleckless  azure  of  the 


266  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

vast  hollowed  firmament;  from  the  laden  roofs  of  a 
dozen  farmhouses  arose  steady  columns  of  smoke  that 
caught  the  flush  of  the  eastern  horizon  in  clearing 
the  shadow  of  the  hills. 

"  Such  a  white  Christmas !  "  repeated  Mrs.  Paull, 
in  an  ecstasy  of  enjoyment.  "  And  such  a  gloriously 
beautiful  happy  world ! " 

Lanier  tossed  his  last  shovelful  of  snow  upon  the 
mastiff,  —  whom  ozone,  or  some  instinctive  sense  of 
unusual  hilarity  in  the  moral  atmosphere,  moved  to 
extraordinary  yelps  and  bounds,  —  and  joined  his 
mother  in  her  rapid  promenade  of  the  paved  floor. 

"  A  pink  Christmas,  I  should  call  it.  Your  glori 
ous  world  is  one  huge,  full-blown  maiden-blush 
rose. " 

"Just  now,  — yes!  In  ten  minutes  the  blush  will 
be  gone.  It  is  fading  now.  Why  should  I  be  re 
minded  of  what  the  royalist  said  of  the  winter 
funeral  of  Charles  I.  ?  c  And  so  went  our  white  king 
to  his  burial. ' ' 

"A  grewsome  association  for  Christmas-day!  " 

"Hardly  that,  when  one  recalls  what  he  escaped. 
But  we  will  have  nothing  but  Christmas-day  talk 
to-day.  Breakfast  will  be  ready  at  eight,  did  you 
say,  Elspeth  ?  Mr.  Lanier  is  ravenous  already.  We 
will  have  luncheon,  my  son,  at  half-past  twelve, 
that  you  may  meet  Marie  at  the  two  o'clock  train. 
Do  you  know  "  —  linking  her  hands  upon  his  arm  as 
they  walked  —  "1  accept  her  consent  to  keep  Christ 
mas  with  us  as  an  augury  of  better  things  ?  She  has 
looked  happier,  and  spoken  more  gently  when  I  have 
seen  her  lately.  She  sent  no  gifts  for  the  tree  except 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  267 

a  book  for  each  of  the  boys,  and  a  doll  for  Gladys ; 
but  you  and  I  prize  more  than  expensive  presents  the 
signs  that  we  are  gaining  back  the  dear,  affectionate, 
winsome  Marie  of  long  ago.  In  His  own  good  time 
all  that  is  wrong  comes  right. 

"  *  For  right  is  right  since  God  is  God, 

And  right  the  day  must  win  ; 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty, 
To  falter  would  be  sin.' 

"And  there  is  no  place  in  God's  world  on  this 
white  Christmas-day  —  see,  it  is  all  pure  white  now 
—  for  faltering  or  for  disloyalty. " 

Her  eyes  sparkled;  her  face  was  aglow  with  the 
dry,  sweet  coldness  of  the  air ;  her  step  was  as  light 
and  swift  as  her  son's. 

He  stooped  to  kiss  her,  and  meeting  her  arch 
glance,  caught  her  around  the  waist,  and  waltzed 
with  her  to  the  other  end  of  the  piazza.  The  mastiff 
leaped  and  barked,  Elspeth  leaned  on  her  broom 
to  chuckle,  and  Gladys,  appearing  in  the  door, 
screamed  with  glee,  and  clapped  her  hands. 

"  Mamma  is  dancing !  Come,  Nursey,  and  look 
at  her!" 

"Was  there  ever  another  such  boy!"  ejaculated 
Mrs.  Paull,  freeing  herself  at  length,  and  putting 
her  hand  to  her  head,  breathless  with  mirth  and 
exercise.  "  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  my  hair  is  on 
my  head,  and  my  head  upon  my  shoulders." 

"  There  ain't  many  such,  and  more  's  the  pity !  " 
said  Nurse  Williams,  from  the  doorway.  "And 
such  mothers  are  even  scarcer,  Mr.  Lanier.  You 


268  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

are  real  smart  to  make  the  most  of  yours.  You 
can't  make  too  much. " 

She  had  been  a  guest  at  Pinehurst  for  a  fortnight. 

"  The  first  out-and-out  holiday  I  've  had  in  ten 
years,"  she  told  Lanier  the  night  before,  while  he 
and  she  were  trimming  the  Christmas-tree.  "And 
it  has  built  me  right  over  again.  I  've  had  a  right 
tough  pull  of  it  since  last  August.  First  off,  two 
typhoids  in  New  York,  —  in  Mr.  Stevens's  parish. 
When  you  've  said  that  you  may  be  sure  they  had 
swallowed  enough  sewer-gas  and  stale  vegetables  — 
not  to  speak  of  decayed  fruit  bought  cheap  Saturday 
night,  on  account  o'  not  keeping  over  Sunday  —  to 
give  them  typhoid  as  was  typhoid.  The  two  were  in 
the  one  house.  Mr.  Stevens  he  come  over  for  me 
on  his  own  two  feet.  He  couldn't  trust  the  tele 
graph,  he  said.  He  waited  until  I  could  rush  some 
things  into  my  bag,  and  took  me  back  with  him. 
When  he  's  on  what  he  calls  '  the  King's  business,' 
he  has  no  manner  of  patience  with  '  fuss  and  frills. ' 
That 's  the  name  he  gives  to  pretences  of  all  sorts, 
whether  it 's  pretending  to  be  too  busy,  or  not  well 
enough,  or  not  competent  to  roll  up  your  sleeves,  as 
it  might  be,  and  go  to  work.  I  've  heard  it  said  that 
he  has  lettered  on  the  inside  of  his  watch :  '  The 
night  cometh ! ' ; 

"He  borrowed  that  idea  from  Dr.  Johnson,  Nurse," 
said  Lanier,  banteringly.  "He  had  the  motto 
engraved  in  Greek  upon  his  watch-case.  But  go 


He  was  never  better  amused  than  when  he  got  the 
good  soul  mounted,  and  in  full  canter,  upoo  one  of 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  269 

her  hobbies.  He  said  she  took  such  comfort  in  all 
sides  of  her  life  that  it  refreshed  him  to  listen  and 
to  look.  They  were  prime  friends. 

"  Was  he  a  medical  or  a  minister  doctor  ?  " 

"  Neither ;  a  doctor  of  philosophy  and  letters,  and 
a  dictionary-maker." 

"Oh!"  placidly  concerned.  "Then  I  suppose  he 
had  to  talk  Greek,  poor  gentleman!  That  '  Tales 
from  Shakespeare  '  is  for  Master  Edwin's  branch,  I 
think ;  '  Historic  Boys  '  is  for  Master  Tom.  Their 
sister  sent  them,  —  and  handsome  books  they  are. 
Very  improving,  too,  I  guess. 

"So,  after  the  typhoids  were  up  and  'round,  — and 
they  accounted  for  six  solid  weeks,  —  measles  set  in 
in  our  church.  I  had  five  children  in  one  family,  — 
one  of  'em  complicated  with  mumps,  and  the  other 
with  rheumatism  for  quite  a  spell.  You  wouldn't 
believe  how  often  one  disease  lies  in  wait  for  another. 
There 's  nothing  in  natur',  I  verily  believe  and 
attest,  more  trying  to  patients  and  doctors  than  com 
plications.  It 's  like  getting  out  of  the  woods  to  find 
yourself  up  to  the  waist  in  a  ma'sh.  And  then 
there  was  that  poor  young  married  lady  that  had  her 
skirts  set  afire  with  the  stump  of  her  husband's 
cigar  he  had  thrown  down  on  the  hearth,  thinking  it 
was  out,  and  he  a-reading  aloud  from  the  newspaper 
to  her,  and  she  braiding  a  smoking-jacket  for  him, 
and  neither  of  them  mistrusting  a  thing  amiss  until 
she  was  in  a  blaze.  She  will  be  lame  for  life,  but 
she  did  n't  die,  and  he  promised  her  never  to  touch 
another  cigar.  He  said  he  'd  had  a  '  sickener  that 
would  last  him  for  a  hundred  years. '  By  the  time 


270  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

she  was  able  to  walk  about  her  room,  I  broke  down 
clean  for  the  first  time  since  I  put  out  my  sign  that 
I'd  '  nurse,  etc. '  Mrs.  Barnes  she  made  me  laugh 
when  she  come  to  see  me  on  my  back  with  a  different 
sort  of  ache  in  every  bone  in  my  body,  by  saying  that 
the  c  and-so-f orth  had  been  too  much  for  me  at  last. ' 
Such  a  flow  of  spirits  as  that  blessed  woman  has ! 
Between  ourselves  and  the  post,  Mr.  Lanier  (though 
what  the  post  has  to  do  with  two  people  and  a  secret, 
I  could  never  make  out),  her  it  was  that  put  your 
mother  up  to  dropping  in  upon  me  on  the  tenth  of 
December,  and  nothing  would  serve  her  but  I  must 
bundle  right  up,  without  any  more  words,  and  come 
up  here  with  her. 

"  She  made  me  laugh,  too,  and  cry  together. 

"  '  It 's  the  King's  business  I  'm  on,  Mrs.  Wil 
liams, '  says  she,  funny,  and  yet  solemn.  'Pinehurst 
is  the  cup  of  cold  water  I  'm  sent  here  to  offer  you, 
my  fellow  disciple. ' 

"  It 's  a  drink  that  has  put  new  life  into  me.  Ah, 
Mr.  Lanier,  don't  you  fall  into  the  way  so  many 
people  have  —  'specially  young  people  who  have  n't 
the  sign  of  a  scar  of  trouble  upon  the  skin  of  their 
hearts  —  of  talking  of  this  world  as  a  sink  of  sin, 
and  of  their  fellow-beings  as  worm-eaten  by  selfish 
ness,  from  A  to  Amperzand.  There 's  loads  of 
specked  fruit  lying  on  the  grass  in  the  Lord's 
orchard,  but  it 's  oftentimes  the  sweetest  that 's 
knurly,  or  rotten  on  one  side.  I  think  the  time 
will  come  when  the  Master,  walking  in  the  garden 
in  the  cool  of  the  day,  will  cut  off  for  His  own  use 
the  good  part,  and  throw  the  bad  away. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  271 

"  As  for  your  mother,  she  's  sound  and  ripe  and 
fine-flavored,  through  and  through.  It 's  an  educa 
tion  in  grace  and  faith  just  to  be  with  her  from  day 
to  day." 

The  speaker  was  a  goodly  sight  in  herself  on  this 
holiday,  than  which  no  whiter  had  stood  in  her  cal 
endar  for  many  a  long  year.  The  wholesome  fare, 
bracing  air,  and  cordial  cheer  of  Pinehurst  had,  as 
she  said,  restored  her  to  her  normal  self.  Her 
cheeks  had  the  bloom  of  a  Spitzenberg  apple;  her 
laugh  was  the  merry  gurgle  her  patients  found  irre 
sistibly  contagious;  her  comfortable  visage  was  an 
illuminated  demonstration  of  "  peace  on  earth,  good 
will  to  men."  Over  her  gray  gown  was  tied  what 
was  surely  the  smoothest  apron  in  all  the  world 
where  white  muslin  aprons  are  the  badge  of  notable 
housewifery.  She  had  been  downstairs  for  over  an 
hour,  dusting  the  parlor,  dressing  the  breakfast 
table  with  ground-pine  and  bitter-sweet  berries,  and 
in  the  kitchen  contriving  to  help,  without  hindering, 
Elspeth,  —  not  always  an  easy  undertaking  in  another 
woman's  kitchen. 

When,  at  half-past  seven,  the  household  assembled 
in  the  parlor  for  prayers,  she  supplied  a  harmonious 
contralto  to  the  soprano  in  which  Mrs.  Paull  led  the 
quaint  old  hymn  that  peals  and  echoes  on  one  morn 
ing  of  the  year  around  the  globe :  — 

"  While  shepherds  watched  their  flocks  by  night, 

All  seated  on  the  ground, 
The  angel  of  the  Lord  came  down 
And  glory  shone  around." 


272  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

What  a  Christmas-keeping  that  was !  From  the 
pink  rising  of  the  sun  to  the  crimson  going  down 
of  the  same,  there  was  not  one  false  note  in  the  guile 
less  mirth  of  childhood,  not  a  sharp  tone  in  the 
voices  of  their  elders.  Nothing  went  wrong.  At 
breakfast  the  generous  rivalry  of  Elspeth's  spongy 
muffins  and  Mrs.  Williams 's  smothered  chicken 
added  zest  to  the  discussion  of  both ;  the  clear  black 
coffee  in  the  cups  of  the  grown  people  was  mantled 
by  whipped  cream  of  like  quality  with  that  which 
slid  slowly  down  inside  of  the  glasses  from  which 
the  children  drank  their  milk. 

Before  anybody  dreamed  that  the  forenoon  was 
half  gone,  the  luncheon  was  served,  —  a  luncheon 
which  the  children  averred  was  quite  as  much  fun 
as  the  Big  Patch  picnic:  toasted  bannocks  and 
yellow  buttermilk  and  home-made  cream  cheese,  as 
smooth  as  butter,  and  far  better  than  so-called 
Neufchatel,  and  hot  corn-bread,  and  wafery  slices  of 
coralline  ham,  and  doughnuts,  —  an  early  meal,  that 
Lanier  might  set  out  betimes  for  Peddlington,  which 
Marie  would  reach  by  the  one  o'clock  train  from  New 
York.  She  could  not  get  away  earlier  on  account  of 
the  morning  service  at  St.  Gudule's.  It  was  in 
voluntary  compliment  to  her  that  her  little  brothers, 
and  even  Gladys,  begged  not  to  have  the  large 
parlor  where  the  tree  stood,  opened  until  the  after 
noon.  They  had  hung  up  their  stockings  over 
night,  and  enjoyed  overhauling  the  fruit,  bonbons, 
and  other  trifles  with  which  they  were  distended  by 
morning.  The  Tree  —  the  anniversary's  Crown 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  273 

and  Event  —  should  not  be  touched,  or  so  much  as 
looked  upon,  before  "  Sister's  "  arrival. 

Everything  went  upon  velvet  that  day.  The  sleek 
roadster  attached  to  the  trim  cutter,  which  was 
Uncle  Roger's  Christmas  present  to  his  sister,  actu 
ally  arched  his  neck,  curvetted,  and  "  stepped  out  " 
with  an  air  a  thoroughbred  might  have  emulated, 
when  Lanier  got  in  and  took  up  the  reins.  Not  a 
capful  of  wind  had  dislodged  the  trim  coping  of  snow 
from  the  top  of  the  stone  walls.  The  steady,  still 
cold  had  held  on,  although  the  sun  shone  brightly. 
The  four-inch-thick  covering  of  the  earth  had  not 
melted,  but  settled  into  compactness,  making  the 
sleighing  excellent,  without  need  of  cutting  roads  in 
any  direction.  As  the  cutter  spun  out  of  the  gate, 
—  "  spun  "  was  not  too  strong  a  word  in  the  boys' 
opinion,  for  the  gallant  way  in  which  bay  Prince 
carried  off  the  new  equipage,  —  the  dry  snow  spurned 
by  his  hoofs  hung  in  the  air  like  silver  dust. 

"  I  wonder  if  it 's  too  dry  to  make  a  snow-man 
with?  "  speculated  Mrs.  Williams,  squeezing  a  hand 
ful  in  her  strong  fingers. 

That  was  the  inception  of  the  famous  statue  of 
Santa  Claus,  which  was  erected  at  the  right  side  of 
the  piazza-step  under  the  shelter  of  the  porch,  "  ready 
to  shake  hands  with  anybody  who  called,"  said 
Gladys. 

He  was  almost  built  when  Mr.  Morse  drove 
around  the  corner  of  the  house,  the  jingle  of  his 
sleigh-bells  unheard  in  the  clamor  of  talk  and  laugh 
ter,  until  he  was  abreast  of  the  busy  group.  Wrapped 
up  to  their  eyes,  with  just  room  between  the  folds  of 

18 


274  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

their  comforters  for  the  escape  of  clouds  of  eager 
breath,  with  thick  gloves  protecting  hands  that  would 
else  have  been  frosted,  the  boys  brought  and  emptied 
upon  the  floor  basketfuls  of  snow.  Mrs.  Paull  and 
Mrs.  Williams,  also  muffled  beyond  recognition  but 
for  eyes  and  voices,  acted  as  sculptors-in-chief. 
Mr.  Morse's  companion  was  his  Philadelphia  brother- 
in-law,  Dr.  Lyell,  a  frequent  and  favored  visitor  at 
Pinehurst. 

"Don't  stop!  Let  us  take  a  hand!"  called  the 
pastor,  gayly,  as  the  sleigh  dashed  on  to  the  stable 
for  shelter  for  the  horse. 

They  were  back  in  three  minutes,  and  took  a  hand 
with  a  will  equal  to  that  of  the  most  zealous,  and 
skill  that  threw  the  best  efforts  of  their  predecessors 
into  the  background. 

"Mould  and  pose  are  really  classic!"  observed 
Mrs.  Paull,  withdrawing  to  a  suitable  distance  for 
contemplation,  while  the  boys  swept  up  the  snow 
scattered  about  the  base  of  the  statue.  "  The  Knick 
erbocker  saint  is  classic  by  now,  is  n't  he  ?  " 

"I  flatter  myself  that  his  cloak  has  a  togaesque 
droop,"  said  Dr.  Lyell,  his  head  on  one  side,  his 
hand  funnelled  artistically.  "  But  the  beard  —  of 
which  Mr.  Morse  was  sole  architect  —  is  the  master 
piece.  I  wish  we  could  borrow  him  as  a  figure 
head  for  the  big  sleigh  to-night "  -  was  the  adroit 
introduction  to  a  petition  the  two  had  come  to 
prefer. 

The  parsonage  was  full  of  frolicsome  young  people 
from  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  for  whom  the 
Morses  had  planned  a  moonlight  sleigh-ride.  Would 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  275 

Mrs.  Paull  spare  her  son  and  daughter  for  a  few 
hours  ?  The  party  would  call  for  them  at  half- 
past  seven,  and  return  them  in  safety  before  mid 
night.  Mrs.  Morse  was  to  matronize  the  affair,  and 
Mr.  Morse  would  allow  nobody  but  himself  to  act  as 
charioteer.  They  were  to  take  supper  at  a  hotel  ten 
miles  away,  situated  in  the  very  heart  of  the  snow- 
girt  mountains,  and  renowned  for  excellent  fare. 
This  was  the  programme  unfolded  by  Mrs.  Paull 
over  the  Christmas  dinner,  served  at  five  o'clock  that 
the  children  might  have  time  to  digest  it  before  bed 
time. 

Marie  sat  at  her  mother's  right  hand,  dressed,  as 
was  her  custom,  simply  in  black.  No  conventual 
costume  could  have  hidden  the  fact  of  her  beauty  to 
day.  Her  nectarine  bloom,  the  golden  sheen  of  her 
luxuriant  hair,  the  eyes,  violet-blue  in  color,  and 
eloquent  in  the  expression  of  every  fluctuation  of 
emotion,  would  have  made  a  pretty,  even  a  brilliant- 
looking  woman  of  her,  had  her  features  been  less 
regular.  In  the  holiday  mood  in  which  she  indulged 
herself,  she  was  bewitching  in  the  sight  of  others  as 
well  as  her  mother,  whose  prideful  love  as  she  looked 
and  listened  to  her  wayward  daughter  gave  watch 
ful  Mrs.  Williams  a  heartache. 

"  She  's  taken  lots  of  stock  in  that  girl,  in  spite  of 
all  that's  passed,"  she  meditated.  "Up  to  date,  it 
is  n't  paying  stock  either ;  but,  there !  the  love  a 
mother  puts  into  her  children  is  most  generally  to 
be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  permanent  invest 
ment.  There  's  no  calculating  what  the  dividends 
will  be  of  shares  that  are  below  par  sometimes  six 


276  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

days  in  a  week,  and  that  a  smile  or  a  kind  word 
can  send  up  on  the  seventh  day  to  thribble  what 
they  're  worth." 

Marie's  eyes  danced  for  one  unguarded  moment, 
and  her  color  was  heightened  at  hearing  of  the  pro 
spective  frolic,  but  her  reply  was  demure. 

"I  should  like  to  go  if  Lanier  is  to  be  one  of  the 
party.  Perhaps,  however,  mother  would  rather 
have  us  stay  at  home  this  evening  ? " 

It  was  spoken  carelessly,  but  the  starved  heart  of 
the  parent  responded  to  the  slight  indication  of 
regard  for  her  wishes. 

"By  no  means,  love,"  she  hastened  to  reply.  "I 
shall  have  you  with  me  all  day  to-morrow.  If  I 
were  ten  years  younger,  and  had  not  played  the 
sculptor  so  hard  this  afternoon,  I  should  ask  for  a 
seat  in  the  sleigh.  The  idea  is  simply  enchanting." 

"You  would  be  the  handsomest  woman  there,  if 
you  went !  "  said  loyal  Tom. 

"That 's  so!  "  Edwin  backed  up  his  senior. 

"And  the  youngest!"  put  in  Mrs.  Williams. 

"  And  the  most  fascinating !  "  —  this  from  Lanier. 

"  And  the  best  and  sweetest ! "  Gladys  carried  on 
the  eulogy,  reaching  over  from  her  chair  at  her 
mother's  left  hand  to  clasp  her  arms  behind  her 
neck. 

"  Certainly  the  richest !  "  responded  Mrs.  Paull, 
trying  to  laugh,  while  her  eyes  swam  in  a  happy  dew. 
"  When  I  have  all  my  children  about  me,  I  can  say 
with  all  my  heart  that  I  do  not  envy  the  Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts,  or  Queen  Croesus,  —  if  there  was 
such  a  personage. " 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  277 

She  said  the  same  in  substance  again,  as,  having 
seen  the  big  sleigh,  heaped  with  furs  and  happiness, 
drive  from  the  door,  and  listened  until  the  last 
tinkle  of  the  bells  lost  itself  among  the  hills,  she 
heaved  a  satisfied  sigh  in  returning  to  the  fireside 
with  Mrs.  Williams. 

"My  cup  is  very  full  to-night.  The  paths  I  have 
not  known  have  brought  me  out  into  a  wealthy 
place.  These  anniversaries  are  hill-tops  where  it  is 
lawful  to  rest  awhile  and  look  back  over  the  road  we 
have  travelled.  Plow  lovely  Marie  has  been  to-day  ! 
Don't  you  think  so  ?  " 

"We  are  not  the  only  people  of  that  opinion. 
Unless  I  am  mistaken,  there  's  a  young  man  of  that 
party  who  could  give  us  a  point  or  two  upon  the 
subject." 

Mrs.  Paull  had  taken  up  a  stick  of  wood  to  lay  on 
the  fire.  The  sentence  arrested  her.  Still  holding 
it,  she  looked  around  quickly : 

"Do  you  mean  Dr.  Lyell  ?  " 

"Just  that!" 

The  hostess  adjusted  the  stick  carefully  in  its 
place,  brushed  up  the  hearth,  and  pulled  forward 
two  chairs,  one  for  her  companion,  one  for  herself. 

"I  have  never  thought  of  such  a  possibility,"  she 
said  slowly.  "  She  seems  such  a  child  to  me." 

"  In  her  twentieth  year,  is  n't  she  ?  " 

"  She  was  nineteen  in  October.  Quite  too  young 
to  be  married." 

"She  looks  and  acts  and  feels  like  a  woman  of 
twenty-five.  You  won't  take  it  amiss  if  I  say  what 
come  into  my  head,  seeing  them  two  together  ?  —  be- 


278  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

fore  that,  in  fact,  for  the  notion  popped  into  my 
brain  this  afternoon  while  he  was  helping  and  talk 
ing  to  you  over  the  snow-man.  I  think  when  he 
was  holding  snow  in  his  hand  to  soften  it  enough  to 
make  a  nose,  and  you  begged  him  not  to  do  it.  'I  'd 
rather  Santa  Glaus  should  have  a  snub  nose  than 
that  you  should  freeze  your  fingers, '  says  you,  in  your 
nice,  motherly  way.  And  he  flashed  his  eyes  up 
at  you  so  quick  and  grateful  and  aft'ectionate-like, 
—  just  the  look  1  've  noticed  in  other  young  men  in 
talking  to  women  they  wish  were  their  mothers-in- 
law.  That  set  me  on  to  watch  him  with  Miss 
Marie.  He  looked  too  happy  to  see  her,  and  she 
made  too  much  of  an  effort  to  behave  to  him  exactly 
as  she  did  to  Mr.  Morse,  not  to  mean  something  out 
of  the  common.  Mr.  Morse,  he  may  not  have  under 
stood  it.  Ministers  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  as  we 
all  know,  that  is,  the  right  sort  are.  (Salt  that 's 
lost  its  savor  ain't  to  be  compared  in  trashiness 
with  the  wrong  kind !)  But  I  Ve  noticed  a  many  a 
time  that  most  of  them  —  even  the  saltiest,  as  you 
may  say  —  have  got  so  into  the  habit  of  being  put 
first  that  they  kinder  squirm  when  they  are  put 
second.  Maybe  it 's  the  praise  and  reverence  of  the 
women  in  the  congregation  that 's  responsible  for  it. 
Maybe,  again,  it 's  being  stood  up  above  the  people 
so  constant,  in  pulpits  and  upon  platforms  and 
things.  Anyhow,  it 's  more  than  likely  Mr.  Morse 
took  it  as  quite  natural  that  Miss  Marie  squeezed  his 
hand  in  both  of  hers,  and  said,  '  May  n't  I  please  sit 
up  there  by  you  ?  '  quite  as  if  she  meant  it.  His  wife 
had  different  eyes  and  her  own  notions,  so  she  had 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  279 

a  fat  elderly  man  on  the  raised  front  seat,  and  snug 
gled  Miss  Marie  in  the  one  just  behind,  '  out  of  the 
wind, '  she  said,  and  between  her  and  Dr.  Lyell. " 

"Is  that  '  the  notion  '  you  hoped  I  would  not  mind 
your  telling  ?  "  asked  Mrs.  Paull,  smiling. 

She  was  versed  in  her  old  friend's  manner  of  lead 
ing  up  to  a  delicate  subject. 

"Well,  then,  it  isn't,  though  it  has  a  good  deal 
to  do  with  it,  when  you  come  down  to  the  truth. 
This  was  what  I  was  thinking  of :  The  best  way  to 
get  one  thing  out  of  the  mind  is  to  fill  it  with 
another  thing.  Ever  since  I  knew  her,  Miss  Marie 
has  had  her  head  and  heart  taken  up  with  one  idea. 
If  this  nice  young  gentleman,  who,  from  what  I  can 
judge,  is  what  he  ought  to  be,  could  work  himself 
into  her  favor  —  why,  it  would  be  a  safer  and 
happier  filling  up  of  her  heart  and  her  life  than  the 
other.  You  '11  forgive  me  if  I  've  gone  too  far,  Mrs. 
Paull  ?  Nobody  knows  better  than  me,  ma'am,  that 
some  wounds  ought  not  be  meddled  with,  even  after 
they  're  healed  over.  No  matter  how  light  they  are 
touched,  they  inflame,  and  like  's  not,  break  out 
again.  I  Ve  carried  such  a  tender  spot  about  me  for 
nine-and-twenty  years." 

"Forgive  you,  dear  friend!"  said  Mrs.  Paull's 
mildest  tone.  "  After  all  you  have  done  for  me  and 
mine,  could  I  take  exception  to  anything  you  might 
say,  even  if  my  judgment  did  not  tell  me  you  are  in 
the  right,  as  it  does  in  this  instance  ?  I  could  ask 
no  better  earthly  blessing  for  my  deep-hearted  girl 
than  to  see  her  the  happy  wife  of  an  honorable  man, 
• — be  it  Richard  Lyell  or  anybody  else.  Pure  love 


280  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

of  a  worthy  object  is  a  sovereign  cure  for  morbid 
ness.  Next  to  this,  I  place  active  industry  for 
others'  good,  — something  to  do,  and  to  be  doing  it." 
"  You  are  in  the  right  there.  But  for  my  work, 
—  my  profession,  as  some  call  it  (I  don't,  but  we 
mean  the  same  thing),  —  work  that 's  laid  right  down 
before  me,  and  me  to  ask  no  questions,  and  to  slight 
nothing,  —  day's  work,  cut  and  carved  and  measured 
out,  same  as  the  tale  of  bricks  was  to  the  Isr'elites, 
but  by  another  sort  of  overseer,  — I  'd  'a'  been  in  my 
grave  or  in  the  lunatic  asylum  ages  ago.  And  since 
I  've  known  and  walked  in  the  Royal  Road,  the  yoke 
has  been  easy  and  the  burden  light.  It  's  like  day 
unto  day  uttering  speech,  a-whispering  one  to  the 
other  of  the  following  of  goodness  and  mercy,  and 
angels  coming  to  minister  unto  me  in  my  darkest 
night. 

*  The  sweet  surrounding 
Of  Thine  angels'  banding  wings.' 

Yes,  I  can  truly  say  that  the  songs  I  have  had  in 
the  house  of  my  pilgrimage  since  I  was  let  to  under 
stand  what  pilgrimage  is, —  and  the  house  but  a  '  mov 
ing  tent  pitched  each  night  nearer  home, '  —  are 
more  and  joyfuller  than  in  the  days  when,  as  one 
might  say,  my  corn  and  my  wine  were  increased. " 

"  And  you,  too,  have  had  a  great  sorrow  ?  " 

The  question  was  scarcely  above  a  whisper. 

"  Such  a  sorrow  as  has  made  every  other  seem 
light  to  me.  Hark !  they  can't  be  back  already  ?  " 

The  clash  and  chime  of  sleigh-bells  were  loud 
and  close  at  hand.  With  the  instant  apprehension 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  281 

that  some  accident  had  befallen  the  revellers,  both 
women  hastened  to  the  outer  door. 

A  livery-stable  sleigh  and  a  pair  of  horses  were 
there ;  a  tall  man  threw  back  the  robes  and  alighted, 
as  the  lamp-rays  from  the  hall  streamed  out  upon  the 
welcoming  figure  of  Santa  Glaus. 


CHAPTEE   XVI. 


The  Everlasting  Arms  !  I  think  of  that  whenever  rest 
is  sweet.  How  the  whole  earth  and  the  strength  of  it, 
that  is  almightiness,  is  beneath  every  tired  creature  to 
give  it  rest,  holding  us  always !  No  thought  of  God 
is  closer  than  that.  —  ADELINE  D.  T.  WHITNEY. 

In  God's  world  for  those  who  are  in  earnest  there  is 
no  failure.  —  F.  W.  ROBERTSON. 

For  him  the  silver  ladder  shall  be  set ; 

His  Saviour  shall  receive  his  latest  breath  j 
He  walketh  to  a  fadeless  coronet 

Up  through  the  gate  of  death. 

ANONYMOUS. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

"  TAON'T  be  frightened,  Alice!"  said  the  unex- 

-L'  pected  visitor.  "I  am  only  a  Christmas 
trick. " 

"  Roger !  my  blessed  brother !  "  was  the  glad  out 
cry  with  which  the  sister  sprang  to  his  arms.  "  This 
is  a  joyful  surprise !  I  only  needed  it  to  make  our 
white  Christmas  '  round  and  perfect  as  a  star. '  " 

Voice  and  limbs  tremulous  with  excitement,  she 
stood  in  the  embrace  of  his  left  arm,  while  he  gave 
orders  to  the  driver  to  put  up  at  the  village  hotel 
and  come  for  him  at  nine  o'clock  next  morning. 
His  sister  interrupted  him : 

"  So  soon,  brother  ?  It  has  been  so  long  since  you 
were  here ! " 

"  I  must  be  off  in  the  ten  o'clock  train,  my  dear 
girl.  As  it  is,  I  shall  find  a  pile  of  work  that  has 
rolled  up  like  a  snow-ball  during  my  twenty-four 
hours' vacation.  Halloo!"  —halting  to  survey  the 
majestic  snow  effigy  towering  higher  than  his  head. 
"You  have  a  Pequod  Michael  Angelo,  then  ? " 

While  she  explained,  Mrs.  Williams  slipped 
unobserved  into  the  house.  By  the  time  he  was 
relieved  of  his  overcoat  and  muffler,  and  installed 
in  an  easy-chair  before  the  roaring  fire  of  hickory- 
logs,  a  tap  at  the  door  heralded  Elspeth  and  the 


286  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

supper-tray,  Mrs.  Williams  following  with  the 
coffee-pot. 

In  defiance  of  his  remonstrances,  the  three  waited 
upon  him  as  they  might  upon  a  materialized  spirit 
of  Christmas.  He  began  by  protesting  that  he  had 
no  appetite,  having  eaten  his  holiday  dinner  in  the 
bosom  of  his  family  at  half-past  five  o'clock,  and  it 
was  not  yet  nine,  and  had  the  reward  of  submission 
to  his  sister's  solicitations  in  the  discovery  that  the 
sharp  air  of  the  hills  had  enkindled  and  renewed 
genuine  hunger. 

"  Now,  I  shall  not  dare  seek  my  pillow  until  mid 
night  ! "  he  feigned  to  bemoan  himself,  when  the 
remnants  of  the  feast  were  cleared  away,  and  Mrs. 
Williams  and  Elspeth  had  withdrawn.  "I  might 
have  known  that  Elspeth's  cookery  would  tempt  me 
beyond  my  powers  of  resistance.  I  can  hardly 
believe  myself  really  here  in  body ;  the  '  lark  '  has 
been  such  a  veritable  impromptu.  I  was  sipping 
my  after-dinner  coffee  in  the  library  when  Virginia 
regretted  to  me  that  she  had  promised  to  take  the 
children  to  a  Christmas  frolic  at  her  sister's,  and  my 
spirit  moved  suddenly  and  mightily  within  me 
toward  my  sister.  '  My  dear, '  I  said,  to  the  best  and 
most  reasonable  of  wives,  '  I  am  strongly  tempted  to 
make  a  rush  in  another  direction,  —  to  escape  to  the 
mountains,  in  fact.  I  have  not  seen  Alice  in  a 
month,  or  the  children  in  three  months.'  Her 
countenance  cleared  up  on  the  instant,  and  I  saw 
that  she  had  been  afraid  that  I  would  be  bored  at 
her  sister's  party.  Genevieve  is  a  fine  woman,  but 
she  is  not  Virginia,  and  I  had  a  hankering  on  Christ- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  287 

mas  night  for  my  own  kin  and  kind.  So,  here  I 
am." 

He  looked  happy  and  comfortable  in  the  home  he 
had  made  luxurious  for  the  sister  he  loved.  The 
chair  in  which  he  leaned  back  had  been  his  father's ; 
the  cushioned  stool  on  which  his  feet  rested  had 
been  worked  by  his  mother,  —  and  he  was  a  man  upon 
whom  the  claims  of  early  association  were  strong. 
Amid  the  toils  and  temptations  of  such  an  existence 
as  a  successful  business  career  in  America  entails 
upon  him  who  pursues  it,  he  had  kept  a  clean  heart 
and  pure  hands,  but  the  ceaseless  grind  of  the  mill 
had  told  upon  his  nervous  forces.  His  handsome 
features  were  thinned  into  ethereal  refinement;  his 
dark  eyes  were  quick  and  searching;  the  masses  of 
brown  hair  pushed  back  from  his  broad  forehead 
showed  a  white  lining  at  the  temples.  Still  his  was 
a  goodly  and  a  stately  presence,  —  noble  beyond  com 
parison  in  the  sight  of  her  whose  earthly  savior  he 
had  proved  himself  in  her  extremest  need.  Her 
eyes  lingered  fondly  upon  him;  while  they  talked 
her  hand  wandered  often  to  his  knee  or  arm ;  once 
he  turned  to  press  his  lips  to  it  as  it  rested  upon  his 
shoulder.  To  the  world,  he  was  quiet,  reserved, 
and  self-contained ;  his  wife  and  children  and  the 
sister  he  ranked  second  only  to  his  Virginia  as  the 
embodiment  of  perfect  womanhood,  knew  the  passion^ 
ate  depths  of  the  hidden  heart. 

She  could  not  weary  of  telling  him  what  full  and 
exquisite  delight  the  unlooked-for  visit  had  brought 
to  her,  — "the  beautiful  outgoing  of  a  perfect  day," 
she  called  it.  He  would  have  all  the  particulars 


288  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

of  the  home-festival,  an  expression  of  profound 
gratification  stealing  over  his  face  as  she  spoke  of 
Marie's  altered  demeanor. 

"To  be  frank  with  you,"  he  owned,  "had  I  sup 
posed  that  her  engagements  would  permit  her  to  be 
with  you  to-day,  I  should  have  hesitated  before  obey 
ing  the  spirit-impulse  I  told  you  of.  The  sight  of 
me  can  hardly  be  agreeable  to  her,  poor  child ! " 

Without  thinking  why  they  did  it,  they  all  called 
the  proud,  self-reliant  girl  that  when  she  was  not 
present  to  be  irked  by  their  pity. 

"  I  have  heard  no  better  news  in  a  month  of  Sun 
days  than  that  she  is  coming  to  herself.  It  is  not  a 
matter  of  moment  that  she  should  do  my  motives 
justice;  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  look  forward  to 
the  time  when  she  shall  know  you,  her  mother,  as  you 
are,  and  appreciate  at  its  true  value  the  tender  for 
bearance  displayed  toward  her  by  you  when  you  were 
yourself  so  sadly  in  need  of  all  the  love  and  sympa 
thy  your  children  could  give  you.  I  used  to  think, 
Alice,  that  the  workman  in  the  stony  field  of  the 
world  must  wait  until  nightfall  before  receiving  his 
recompense.  At  fifty,  I  am  beginning  to  learn  that 
if  he  be  observant,  he  gets  many  an  earnest,  as  he 
goes  along,  of  what  the  final  reward  will  be.  I 
wish  I  had  been  on  the  look-out  earlier.  1  have 
missed  tokens  which  I  ought  to  have  picked  up  of 
the  '  largesse  '  flung  to  his  subjects  by  the  King  in 
passing." 

"  Good  old  Dr.  George  Junkin  said  to  me  once, " 
replied  his  sister,  "  that  one  key  to  the  enigma  of  the 
Father's  apparently  severe  dealings  with  His  chil- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  289 

dren  is  that  sin,  by  its  very  nature,  must  entail 
suffering  upon  the  transgressor ;  and  since  there  are 
no  punitive  fires  in  the  world  to  come  for  His 
beloved,  the  chastening  requisite  for  purification 
and  healthful  spiritual  growth  must  be  borne  here. 
1  believe  firmly  that  we  too  frequently  miss  the 
benefit  we  might  gain  from  what  you  speak  of  as 
an  earnest  of  the  '  reserved  '  treasure  at  which  Saint 
Peter  hints.  We  make  too  little  of  every-day  joys, 
of  daily  deliverance,  of  sparkles  of  happiness,  and 
glimpses  of  beauty  granted  to  us,  —  not  by  accident, 
but  as  really  '  sent '  to  us  as  the  fall  of  manna  was 
sent  to  the  Israelites.  What  wealth  of  spiritual 
instruction  there  is  in  that  story  of  the  manna!  'He 
that  had  gathered  much  had  nothing  over,  and  he 
that  had  gathered  little  had  no  lack,'  provided  the 
gathering  was  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.  It 
was  only  the  hoard  secreted  for  the  morrow  that 
spoiled  into  offensiveness." 

Roger  patted  her  shoulder,  the  corners  of  his 
mustache  twitching  roguishly :  — 

"I  catch  the  hoof-beats  of  your  hobby,  my  dear! 
Don't  rein  him  in  on  my  account.  I  may  have 
laughed  at  him  and  at  you,  in  a  half-hearted  way, 
sometimes,  but  often  and  often,  when  I  have  lain 
awake  into  the  small  hours,  revolving  this  scheme 
of  adding  to  my  store,  or  anticipating  the  dreadful 
details  of  threatening  losses  to  me,  and  to  others 
who  trusted  in  my  sagacity,  I  have  bethought  myself 
of  your  Royal  Road,  and  acknowledged  that  its  ways 
are  the  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  its  paths  are 
peace.  If  I  had  my  life  to  live  over  again,  I  would 

19 


290  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

curb  imagination,  and  deny  myself  some  of  the 
pleasures  of  anticipation  for  the  sake  of  knowing 
that  peace.  I  would  try  to  take  God  at  His  word, 
and  cast  at  least  a  few  tons  of  this  load  of  daily 
care  upon  Him  who  careth  for  me.  Even  for  me  !  " 
he  added  dreamily,  with  bowed  head.  "Even  for 
me!" 

He  passed  his  hand  over  his  eyes,  and  roused  to  a 
livelier  tone. 

"  I  do  not  know  twelve  lines  of  poetry  in  all,  but 
two  of  the  dozen  sang  and  hummed  themselves  in 
my  ears  to  a  sleigh-bell  accompaniment  all  the  way 
from  Peddlington.  They  are  part  of  an  old  song  our 
father  liked  to  hear  you  sing :  — 

'  I  know  Thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call, 
For  Thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall.' 

Would  it  awaken  the  children  if  you  were  to  run  it 
over  for  me  now  ?  " 

Her  answer  was  to  arise  and  go  to  the  piano  Marie 
had  left  open.  Elspeth,  hobnobbing  over  the  kitchen 
fire  with  Mrs.  Williams,  set  the  dining-room  door 
ajar  that  they  might  hear  more  distinctly  the  rich 
vibrant  notes  that  swelled  and  soared  through  the 
silent  chambers  and  empty  halls:  — 

"  Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep, 
I  lay  me  down  in  peace  to  sleep ; 
Secure  I  rest  upon  the  wave, 
For  Thou,  O  Lord  !  hast  power  to  save. 
I  know  Thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call, 
For  Thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall; 
So  calm  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 
Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  291 

"  And  such  the  trust  that  still  were  mine, 
Though  blasting  winds  swept  o'er  the  brine, 
And  though  the  tempest's  fiery  breath 
Wake  me  from  sleep  to  pain  and  death,  — 
Secure  in  ocean's  cave  with  thee, 
The  germ  of  immortality, 
Peaceful  I  'd  lay  me  down  to  sleep 
Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep." 

When  the  singer  resumed  her  seat,  Mr.  Lanier 
laid  his  hand  upon  hers. 

"  Thank  you !  "  he  said.  "  When  we  join  the  ever 
lasting  song,  I  shall  lower  my  voice  to  listen  for 
yours.  I  think  I  should  recognize  it  in  the  Halle 
lujah  Chorus  itself. 

'  We  've  lived  and  loved  together, 
Through  many  changing  years/  — 

sweet  sister!  (There  go  two  more  of  my  dozen!) 
In  all  those  years,  and  through  all  the  changes  they 
have  wrought,  have  we  ever  exchanged  a  sharp  word, 
or  had  a  hard  thought  of  one  another  ?  " 

"  Never !  "  she  said  earnestly. 

"That  is  pleasant  to  think  of  while  we  are  alive 
upon  the  earth.  It  will  be  a  consolation  to  the  one 
left  behind  when  the  other  is  yet  more  alive  in  the 
house  where  changes  never  come.  While  I  am  in 
the  confessional  "  -  with  a  little  laugh  — "  I  may  as 
well  admit  that  I  should  have  been  a  healthier  Chris 
tian  had  I  taken  and  enjoyed  the  snatches  of  rest 
thrown  into  my  way  on  the  journey  up-hill,  instead  of 
eating  and  sleeping  in  harness,  and  giving  up  an  hour 
or  so  of  Sunday,  and  more  than  an  hour  or  so  of 
the  time  that  should  have  been  spent  every  night  in 


292  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

folding  the  hands  together  in  slumber,  —  in  longing 
for  eternal  rest.  One  verse  I  do  know  by  heart.  I 
should  be  hopelessly  stupid  if  I  did  not,  having 
repeated  it  some  hundreds  of  times,  in  the  heat  of 
the  day's  battle,  and  in  the  night  when  sleep  forsook 
my  eyelids :  — 

« Oh,  Land  of  Rest,  for  thee  I  sigh  1 

When  will  the  moment  come, 
When  I  shall  lay  my  armor  by, 
And  be  in  thee  at  home  ? ' 

A  man  gets  so  tired !  so  tired ! " 

"  Every  buckle  and  strap  of  that  same  armor  ought 
to  be  let  out,"  Mrs.  Paull  said  decidedly.  "Dear 
Roger!  is  such  incessant  toil  imperative  at  your 
age,  and  in  your  circumstances  ?  Surely  you  have 
accumulated  enough  to  warrant  this  ?  " 

"  That  is  not  the  question.  Riches  are  a  responsi 
bility,  no  less  than  a  care,  —  a  responsibility  one 
cannot  delegate  to  another.  For  money  —  for  the 
money's  worth  —  I  would  not  give  that,"  snapping 
his  fingers.  "  As  a  means  of  doing  good,  of  confer 
ring  happiness,  of  insuring  the  comfort  of  those  I 
love ;  of  enhancing  the  prosperity  of  the  community 
in  which  I  have  made  my  fortune,  —  its  value  cannot 
be  overstated. 

"  I  did  not  come  here  to  talk  of  money  and  money- 
making,  but  before  quitting  the  subject,  —  there  will 
be  a  desk  in  my  office  for  Lanier  when  he  is  ready  to 
take  it.  My  elder  boys  being  girls,  it  will  be  fifteen 
years  before  Roger,  Jr.,  will  be  eligible  for  such  a 
position.  Shall  we  —  you  and  I  —  live  to  read  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  293 

style  of  the  firm, — 'Lanier  &  Son, '-—do  you 
think  ? " 

"  It  is  altogether  probable.  Our  father  lived  to  be 
seventy-three. " 

"  It  is  a  long  time  to  look  ahead !  "  with  a  weary 
intonation. 

"Happily  there  is  no  need  to  do  it,"  said  the 
sister.  "The  'hoof-beats'  again!  The  present  is 
so  affluent  of  mercies  that  I  have  no  temptation  to 
forecast  the  future,  further  than  to  thank  you  for 
your  generous  designs  toward  my  boy.  I  can  prom 
ise  that  he  will  serve  you  faithfully,  to  the  best  of 
his  ability.  He  cannot  serve  you  too  well.  He 
knows  and  feels  this." 

At  eleven  o'clock,  hearing  Elspeth  moving  about, 
shutting  up  the  house,  her  mistress  called  her  and 
Mrs.  Williams  into  the  sitting-room.  Mr.  Lanier 
sat  at  the  table  with  the  Family  Bible  open  before 
him, — reverent  and  dignified  as  befitted  the  patri 
archal  office. 

"  The  steps  of  a  good  man  are  ordered  ~by  the  Lord" 
he  read  :  "  and  he  delight  eth  in  His  way. 

"  Though  he  fall,  he  shall  not  be  utterly  cast  down  : 
for  the  Lord  upholdeth  him  with  His  hand. 

"I  have  been  young,  and  now  am  old  ;  yet  have  1 
not  seen  the  righteous  forsaken,  nor  his  seed  legging 
bread." 

He  did  not  finish  the  Psalm,  closing  the  book  upon 
the  thirty-seventh  verse  :  - 

"  Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright;  for 
the  end  of  that  man  is  peace." 

Perhaps  he  did  not  care,  on  Christmas   night,  to 


294  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

direct  his  thoughts  and  those  of  his  auditors  to  the 
antithetical  doom  of  transgressors.  His  face  was  all 
peace  as  the  four  arose  from  their  knees  after  the  brief 
prayer,  direct  and  devout,  that  committed  the  house 
hold  and  all  dear  to  it  to  the  Father's  loving  care. 

"Your  visit  is  the  postscript  to  a  love-letter  for  us 
all,  from  Him  who  was  born  in  Bethlehem,"  said 
Mrs.  Williams,  in  "shaking  hands  with  him  for  the 
night.  "  He  sent  you  —  straight !  " 

"  I  hope  so !  "  reverently.  "  But  the  benefit  is 
chiefly  mine.  I  am  younger  by  ten  years  than  when 
1  left  New  York.  Mrs.  Paull  has  a  private  cellar  at 
Pinehurst  where  she  keeps  the  Elixir  of  Life  'on 
tap.'  You  have  been  treated  to  it,  I  see,  Mrs. 
Williams.  I  am  glad  to  see  you  looking  so  well. 
Good-night  I  Christmas  dreams  to  you,  Elspeth !  " 

When  his  sister  came  back  to  the  sitting-room  after 
a  conference  in  the  hall  with  Elspeth,  he  was  stand 
ing  by  the  hearth,  examining  a  photograph  of  Marie 
taken  from  the  mantel. 

"There  is  capital  stuff  in  that  girl,"  he  said 
kindly.  "You  will  get  a  world  of  comfort  out  of 
her  yet.  Wrap  yourself  up  warmly,  and  take  a  turn 
on  the  piazza  before  going  to  bed,  if  you  are  not  too 
weary.  I  shall  sleep  the  better  for  an  ozone  night 
cap." 

The  weather  had  moderated  sensibly  since  the  sun 
went  down.  Plumes  of  pale  vapor  were  streaming 
up  slowly  from  behind  the  hills ;  about  the  moon, 
round  as  a  shield,  and  riding  high  in  the  zenith,  was 
flung  a  vast  halo,  glittering  with  faintly  prismatic 
crystals  of  snow. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  295 

"'A  far-off  halo,  a  near-hand  storm!'  '  quoted 
Roger,  drawing  his  sister's  hand  within  his  arm. 
"  I  hope  it  will  be  snow,  and  not  rain,  as  my  sleigh 
has  no  top.  Yet  a  heavy  snow-fall  upon  that  which 
is  already  on  the  ground  would  be  no  joke  to  a  man 
who  must  be  in  New  York  at  eleven  o'clock  to 
morrow  morning.  And  there  is  no  telegraph-station 
nearer  than  Peddlington ! " 

He  looked  so  perturbed  that  Mrs.  Paull  tendered  a 
morsel  of  comfort. 

"  Should  you  be  snow-bound,  —  and  I  don't  believe 
you  will  be,  —  a  day  of  country-rest,  winter-rest, 
would  do  you  a  world  of  good.  I  am  not  sure  that 
there  could  be  a  better  prescription  for  you,  and 
other  jaded  men  of  affairs,  than  to  be  weather-locked 
for  a  solid  week  in  a  country-house.  It  would  loosen 
the  nerve  tension  efficaciously." 

"And  loosen  the  credit-tension  yet  more  effectu 
ally!  No,  my  dear,  I  must  stand  in  my  office  at 
eleven-thirty  to-morrow,  weather  or  no  weather. 
Some  exigencies  are  inexorable,  and  the  law  calling 
a  business  man  to  his  post  out-Dracos  Draco. 

"  Borrowing  trouble  again,  you  will  say !  I  will 
take  the  present  pleasure  without  courting  to 
morrow's  shadow.  I  am  conscious  at  this  precise 
instant  of  nothing  but  that  I  was  a  wonderfully 
clever  fellow  to  plan  this  frolic,  and  that  I  am  more 
than  satisfied  with  the  result  of  it. 

"What  a  benignant  air  your  snow  sentinel  wears 
in  the  moonlight!  He  really  startled  me,  as  we 
drove  up  to  the  porch;  his  attitude  was  so  life-like 
and  imposing.  Do  you  recollect  Hawthorne's 


296  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

charming  story  of  '  The  Snow  Image, '  and  the  scold 
ing  we  got  from  our  nurse  one  stormy  afternoon  for 
stealing  out  into  the  back-yard  to  build  a  little  girl 
like  that  which  the  mother  saw  running  about  in  the 
garden  with  her  daughters  ?  How  we  believed  in 
things,  then!  There  is  no  fiction  in  Child-World. 
There  is  a  large  hospitality  in  the  outstretch  of  your 
Santa  Glaus'  massive  arm,  and  his  beard  is  a  stroke 
of  genius.  It  would  not  surprise  me  out  of  my  wits 
if  our  venerable  friend  were  to  break  loose  from  his 
moorings,  and  fall  into  step  with  us. " 

Chatting,  now  jestingly,  now  seriously,  they  paced 
up  and  down  for  a  good  half-hour,  watching  the 
rising  mists  gather  form  and  opaqueness,  as  they 
invaded  the  clear  ether  of  the  upper  heavens.  The 
horizon  lines  were  blurred,  and  in  the  extreme  dis 
tance  blotted  out;  the  moon  grew  wan  and  watery; 
there  was  a  nearing  change  in  the  Christmas 
weather.  Boding  murmurs  ran  from  bough  to  bough 
of  the  ermined  pines ;  occasionally  a  deep,  irregular 
growl,  like  subterranean  thunder,  shuddered  to  them 
from  the  ice-bound  lake,  —  the  struggle  for  freedom 
of  imprisoned  winds  entrapped  through  some  "  breath 
ing-hole  "  far  up  the  gorge,  and  aroused  to  rebellion 
by  the  indications  of  approaching  warfare  in  the  free 
air  above  the  dungeon. 

The  visitor  expressed  no  further  solicitude  as  to 
the  chances  of  detention  in  his  homeward  journey. 
The  clear  shining  of  his  holiday  mood  continued 
throughout  the  walk  and  talk. 

Mrs.  Paull  paused  for  a  last  look  at  the  outer  scene 
before  entering  the  house. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  297 

"  Our  white  Christmas  is  over ! "  she  said  regret 
fully.  "  There  goes  the  stroke  of  twelve !  Ah,  well ! 
we  have  enjoyed  every  blessed  minute  of  it.  'From 
early  morn  to  dewy  eve, '  it  has  been  without  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing.  We  give  it  back  to  God 
as  pure  as  when  we  received  it  from  His  hand. 

"  '  And  so  went  our  white  king  to  his  burial ! '  " 

Her  brother  looked  at  her  in  surprised  inquiry. 

"You  spoke  of  a  ringing  in  your  ears  or  brain  of 
a  certain  snatch  of  a  song.  That  sentence  has 
haunted  me  all  day.  I  read  it  in  an  account  of  the 
execution  of  Charles  L,  written,  as  you  may  know, 
by  a  devoted  royalist.  The  snow  fell  upon  his  bier 
as  they  carried  it  to  the  vault ;  when  it  got  there,  the 
black  velvet  was  as  white  as  wool.  'And  so  went 
our  white  king  to  his  burial,'  are  the  concluding 
words  of  the  narrative.  That  they  should  pursue 
me  to-day  is  an  absurd  and,  so  far  as  I  can  judge, 
a  causeless  haunting,  although  I  do  not  deny  that  I 
am  a  Stuart-lover.  Now  your  lines  are  beautiful, 
comforting,  and  always  apt." 

Her  brother  hummed  them  in  putting  together  the 
brands  on  the  hearth,  and  piling  on  stout  logs  that 
would  be  ablaze  by  the  time  Lanier  and  Marie 
returned :  — 

"  I  know  Thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call, 
For  Thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall." 

"I  don't  know  that  I  care  to  get  away  from  my 
4  haunting. '  I  could  lay  nothing  pleasanter  to  heart. 
And  the  inevitable  association  of  '  Ye  are  of  more 
value  than  many  sparrows '  is  a  soft  pillow  for  tern- 


298  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

pies  a-throb  with  the  cares  of  this  world  and  the 
deceitfulness  of  riches. 

"Good-night,  my  Evangel!  God  bless  and  keep 
you,  and  give  you  many,  many  more  white  days ! " 

Mrs.  Paull  caught  up  his  haunting  rhyme,  going 
over  words  and  tune  musingly,  a  smile  upon  her  lip, 
as  she  laid  off  her  dress,  put  on  a  wrapper,  and  went 
back  to  the  parlor-fire.  She  stirred  the  bed  of 
scarlet  coals,  lay  back  in  her  father's  chair,  her 
feet  upon  the  embroidered  stool,  and  thought  her 
own  happy  thoughts  until  the  merry-makers  found 
her  there,  fully  awake  to  the  interest  of  the  story  of 
their  drive  and  entertainment. 

Marie  kissed  her  of  her  own  accord  outside  of  her 
mother's  chamber-door. 

"  You  are  too  good  to  me,  mamma !  I  wish  I  were 
a  better  child  to  you !  " 

"  All  dear  and  lovely  things  have  come  to  me  this 
Christmas-tide ! "  murmured  the  mother,  as  she  laid 
her  head  on  the  pillow,  and  heard  the  toll  of  one 
from  the  hall-clock. 

She  was  falling  asleep  when  the  hymning  of  a  dis 
tant  choir  seemed  to  bring  to  her  the  fragment  of 
the  "old  song  our  father  loved  to  hear  you  sing." 
She  could  have  fancied  that  she  heard  her  brother's 
voice  in  the  celestial  music :  — 

"  I  know  Thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call, 
For  Thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall." 

She  sat  up,  startled  and  but  partially  awake ;  then 
smiled  and  sank  back  among  the  pillows. 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  299 

"  Dear,  dear  old  Roger !  No  wonder  that  I  dream 
of  him ! " 

The  stillness  of  night  and  slumber  enwrapped 
dreaming  household  and  landscape.  Except  that  the 
mourning  pines  responded  fitfully  to  the  captive 
winds  under  the  ice,  and  that  long  brooding  breath 
ings  stirred  the  unclothed  limbs  of  oaks  and  hicko 
ries,  nothing  moved  in  the  solemn  amphitheatre 
within  the  rampart  of  the  hills,  until,  at  four  o'clock, 
the  snow  began  to  fall. 

Great  flakes  drifted  straight  earthward,  and 
caught  upon  and  clung  to  the  trees,  floating  down 
and  down,  slow  and  large,  until  the  nearest  hills 
were  invisible  behind  the  wavering  white  veil.  The 
trees  ceased  their  sighing  under  the  increasing 
weight  of  damp  snow;  the  mysterious  groans  be 
neath  the  ice  were  muffled  out  of  hearing;  the  earth, 
that  had  slept  while  the  moon  shone,  lay  dead  in  her 
misty  shroud. 

Over  her,  morning  broke  dimly  and  reluctantly. 
Everything  in  the  landscape  had  suffered  a  snow- 
change;  fences  were  buried  out  of  sight,  and  all 
traces  of  highways  were  obliterated ;  the  lake  was 
no  more  level  than  the  meadow  beyond  it;  one  half 
of  the  benignant  snow-image  presented  to  view  a 
misshapen  obelisk,  majestic  still  in  disfigurement. 
On  the  northward  and  lakeward  sides  of  the  dwell 
ing  there  were  embankments  of  snow  against  the 
foundation,  darkening  the  cellar,  and  upon  the  roof 
pediments  and  turrets  never  built  there  by  mortal 
architecture,  and  white  "  pointings "  of  bricks  and 
stones  that  were  not  there  yesterday.  On  one  end 


300  THE  ROYAL   ROAD. 

and  the  front,  the  gray  dawn  could  not  penetrate  the 
snow-incrusted  windows,  and  the  red  shine  of  the 
newly-kindled  fires  showed  murky  from  without, 
even  after  the  inmates  were  up  and  stirring  to  make 
all  ready  for  Uncle  Roger's  early  breakfast. 

The  panes  of  the  south-chamber  casements  were 
clear.  Facing  that  which  looked  toward  the  east,  — 
as  one  who  watched  to  see  the  day  break  and  the 
shadows  flee  away,  with  a  smile  that  was  not  expec 
tation,  but  fulness  of  satisfaction  upon  his  lips,  —  lay 
a  pale  sleeper  who  would  not  arise  with  the  rest  at 
the  call  of  the  new  day. 

"  And  so  went  our  white  king  to  his  burial ! " 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


Like  a  blind  spinner  in  the  sun 

I  tread  my  days  ; 
I  know  that  all  the  threads  will  run 

Appointed  ways. 

I  know  each  day  will  bring  its  task, 
And  —  being  blind  —  no  more  I  ask. 

I  do  not  know  the  use  or  name 

Of  that  I  spin  ; 
I  only  know  that  some  one  came 

And  laid  within 

My  hand  the  thread,  and  said,  "  Since  you 
Are  blind,  but  one  thing  you  can  do." 

H.  H. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

ROGER  LANIER'S  loving  thoughtfulness  for  the 
sister  thrown  so  sadly  upon  his  generosity  and 
protection,  and  whom  he  had  cherished  fondly  to  the 
end,  was  further  exemplified  in  his  will. 

The  property  bequeathed  to  her  by  their  father, 
and  judiciously  invested  by  the  son,  was  committed 
to  the  care  of  his  fellow  and  surviving  trustee,  who 
was  also  his  business  partner.  For  himself,  he 
devised  to  Alice  Paull,  and  her  children  after  her, 
Pinehurst,  with  garden,  orchard,  and  woodlands 
adjacent;  in  all,  thirty  acres;  ten  thousand  dollars 
for  her  own  use  in  fee  simple,  and  two  thousand  to 
each  of  her  five  children,  — Lanier's  and  Marie's 
legacies  to  be  paid  to  them  at  once,  those  of  the 
younger  children  to  accumulate  under  their  mother's 
management,  until  each  should  reach  his  or  her 
majority.  There  was  a  long  list  of  minor  bequests, 
including  one  hundred  dollars  apiece  to  Mary  Wil 
liams  and  Elspeth  Boyd. 

He  had  forgotten  nobody  whom  want  or  worth  had 
brought  to  his  notice.  From  the  grave  in  which 
they  laid,  that  white  Christmas  week,  all  of  him 
that  could  die,  he  continued  to  exert  the  beneficent 
influence  that  had  been  an  essential  part  of  his 
nature.  Being  dead,  he  yet  spoke  of  the  divine 


304  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

lavishness  learned  at  the  feet  of  Him  who  gave  His 
all  for  an  unloving  world. 

Above  that  grave  there  arose  in  due  time  a  stately 
obelisk,  bearing  upon  one  side  of  the  base  the  last 
text  upon  which  his  living  eyes  had  rested,  and  which 
his  reverent  tongue  had  uttered :  — 

"  Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright, 
For  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace." 

Upon  the  obelisk,  and  beneath  the  brief  record 
of  his  name  and  age,  were  the  lines:  — 

"  I  know  Thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call, 
For  Thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall." 

"  He  has  fallen  as  he  would  have  wished,  —  with 
his  full  armor  on,"  -wife  and  sister  said  to  one 
another.  "For  him  the  exchange  is  all  gain.  For 
us  —  " 

Words  failed  them  there.  Apart,  and  in  her  own 
home,  each  gathered  her  children  under  her  wings, 
and,  looking  upon  their  helplessness,  braced  body 
and  spirit  to  do  a  woman's  part  in  her  shattered  life. 

Upon  the  peaceful  household  of  Pinehurst,  the 
bereavement  had  fallen  with  terrible  suddenness  and 
weight.  Mrs.  Paull  had  herself  gone  to  knock  at 
her  brother's  door  in  season  to  awaken  him  for  his 
breakfast  and  journey,  and  receiving  no  reply, 
entered,  supposing  that  he  had  arisen  and  gone 
downstairs  to  make  observations  as  to  the  depth  of 
the  snow-fall,  and  calculate  the  chances  of  reaching 
the  city  in  time  to  keep  his  engagement. 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  305 

When  the  numbness  of  the  first  shock  passed 
before  returning  and  poignant  sentiency,  nurse,  son, 
and  servant  were  alarmed  for  her  health  and  reason. 
The  exquisitely  tender  and  vivid  memories  of 
Roger's  latest  words  and  looks,  of  the  graceful  play 
of  fun  and  fancy  that  had  enlivened  the  sweet  counsel 
they  had  held  together  on  that  never-to-be-forgotten 
night;  the  full  and  affectionate  confidence  he  had 
poured  out  upon  her,  — his  "Evangel,"  -added 
keenest  regret  to  natural  grief  at  the  loss  of  the 
strong  staff  of  her  worse-than-widowhood. 

For  ten  hours  after  she  had  found  her  brother 
asleep,  with  the  frozen  sweetness  of  the  smile  that 
visits  mortal  lineaments  but  once,  upon  the  finely 
moulded  face,  not  a  single  tear  softened  eyes  that 
were  perilously  bright;  the  flush  of  cheek  and  lips 
reminded  Elspeth  and  Mrs.  Williams  of  the  earlier 
stage  of  the  illness  that  had  once  nearly  wrecked  life 
and  mind.  Relief  came  strangely  and  unexpectedly. 

Owing  to  the  heavy  fall  of  snow,  not  only  the  high 
way  to  Peddlington  was  blocked  up,  but  the  railway 
from  that  town  to  New  York  was  not  cleared  for 
passenger-trains  before  the  afternoon,  and  Mrs. 
Lanier  did  not  reach  Pinehurst  until  after  dark.  As 
the  distant  sound  of  sleigh-bells  warned  Mrs.  Paull 
of  her  approach,  she  came  out  upon  the  piazza  to 
receive  her  sister-in-law,  and  espied  the  fallen  bulk 
of  the  snow  image,  hurriedly  toppled  over  by  the 
shovels  that  had  removed  the  drifts,  and  now  prone 
and  unconsidered  among  the  heaps  thrown  up  in  cut 
ting  a  path  to  the  carriage-drive.  The  arm,  out 
stretched  in  welcome  or  benediction,  was  gone,  and 

20 


306  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

the  lower  limbs  were  confused  with  the  surrounding 
masses ;  but  trunk  and  head  were  distinguishable  in 
the  moonlight,  and  the  indefinable  expression  of 
majestic  calm  the  effigy  had  worn  while  upright. 

"  It  would  not  surprise  me  out  of  my  wits  if  our 
venerable  friend  there  were  to  break  loose  from  his 
moorings,  and  fall  into  step  with  us. " 

The  gay  laugh  that  went  with  the  pleasantry  rang 
anew  in  her  ear,  and  the  manly  tones  that  were 
henceforth  to  be  but  an  echo  for  all  time. 

"  It  is  nothing  but  snow,  and  it  has  outlasted  him  !  " 
she  cried  out,  and  lapsed  into  wild  weeping  in  her 
son's  arms. 

"Thank  God!"  said  Dr.  Lyell,  aside  to  his 
brother-in-law.  "The  worst  is  over!" 

The  two  men,  with  Mrs.  Morse,  had  been  at  the 
house,  or  attending  to  business  connected  with  the 
sad  event  all  day.  They  accompanied  the  remains 
to  the  city,  and  were  present  at  the  funeral  and 
burial,  —  quiet,  unobtrusive,  and  efficient,  such 
friends  and  neighbors  as  prosperity  seldom  develops. 
The  day  of  the  interment  was  one  4>f  fierce  tempest, 
—  an  ice-storm  long  remembered  by  those  who  were 
exposed  to  it.  By  request  of  the  widow  and  sister 
of  the  deceased,  Mr.  Morse  offered  the  prayer  of 
committal  at  the  grave,  standing  bare-headed  during 
the  brief  service,  and  driving  back  to  town  in  his  wet 
clothes. 

The  next  afflictive  news  brought  to  the  mourners 
in  the  lakeside  homestead  was  of  his  severe,  and 
soon,  his  dangerous  illness.  Four  weeks'  suspension 
between  his  bed  and  the  tomb  left  him  the  spectre  of 


THE  ROYAL   ROAD.  307 

his  hale  and  comely  self.  As  soon  as  he  could 
travel,  his  brother-in-law  asked  leave  of  absence  for 
him  of  the  church,  which  was  instantly  granted, 
and  early  in  February  he  sailed  under  Dr.  Lyell's 
care  for  the  south  of  France. 

All  had  come  to  pass  with  terrifying  swiftness, 
when  one  recalls  the  jocund  spirits  of  the  parsonage 
and  Pinehurst  households  on  the  Christmas  after 
noon,  removed  into  the  far  past  in  the  imaginations 
of  the  participants  in  the  innocent  revelry.  It  re 
quired  no  common  exercise  of  will  to  readjust  domes 
tic  machinery,  and  to  lay  again  a  firm  hand  upon 
the  guiding  lever. 

As  Mrs.  Morse  drove  through  the  wood  separating 
the  Pinehurst  house  from  the  highway,  one  bleak 
March  afternoon,  she  awoke  abruptly  to  the  convic 
tion  that,  into  the  intercourse  of  the  past  few  weeks 
which  had  ripened  warm  friendliness  into  intimacy, 
she  had  received  rather  than  imparted  hopeful  cour 
age.  She  had  fallen  into  the  habit  of  repairing  to 
Mrs.  Paull  when  she  was  lonely  or  despondent 
because  of  her  husband's  absence  and  ill-health; 
when  an  expected  letter  did  not  arrive;  when  a 
parishioner  was  captious,  or  over-sensitive,  or  there 
was  sickness  in  her  nursery,  —  and  she  never  went 
away  unsatisfied.  She  was  ingenuous  with  herself 
as  well  as  impulsive  with  her  friends,  and,  her  eyes 
once  opened,  she  did  not  spare  self-rebuke. 

"One  might  suppose  that  I  was  deserted  and 
bereaved,  and  not  she ! "  jerking  the  reins  upon  the 
unoffending  horse.  "I  have  taken  everything,  and 
given  nothing.  I  have  talked  of  myself  and  my 


308  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

concerns  like  a  selfish  baby,  and  she  has  listened 
like  a  sympathizing  angel.  Just  let  me  get  a  chance 
to  turn  the  tables  once,  and  won't  I  try  to  stand 
better  in  my  own  opinion  ?  " 

Not  a  human  creature  was  in  sight  when  she  drew 
up  at  the  lakeward  front,  and  although  the  blinds 
were  open,  the  dwelling  had  to  her  fancy  a  lonely 
aspect,  enhanced  by  the  trim  order  of  grounds  and 
out-houses  which  generally  relieved  the  isolation  of 
the  location.  She  was  about  to  tie  her  horse  to  the 
hitching-post  at  the  right  of  the  house,  when  a  door 
opened  in  the  barn,  and  a  red-haired  Scotchman, 
who  had  been  employed  upon  the  place  for  a  year  or 
more,  issued  from  it. 

"  Is  Mrs.  Paull  at  home,  Robert  ?  " 

"Na;  and  she  's  not,  ma'am.  I  'm  just  back  from 
driving  her  to  Peddlington,  —  her  and  the  wee 
missie. " 

"  Then  —  "  began  the  visitor,  disappointed. 

"  Wull  ye  be  sae  glide  as  to  walk  in,  ma'am  ?  " 
said  Elspeth,  from  behind  her.  "Robert!  ye  '11  look 
after  the  beast.  My  mistress  left  a  word  for  ye,  if 
ye  suld  call,  as  she  thocht  like  ye  might.  Wull  ye 
step  into  the  parlor,  if  ye  please,  ma'am  ?  " 

"Let  me  come  right  into  the  kitchen  where  you 
were  sitting,  Elspeth,"  —  suiting  movement  to 
word.  "  I  am  always  delighted  to  get  a  peep  at  it. 
Nobody's  else  kitchen  is  so  neat  and  cheerful,  —  and 
indeed  so  pretty,  now  that  your  geraniums  are  in 
bloom.  How  do  you  coax  them  to  blossom  all  the 
time  ?  This  is  more  like  a  greenhouse  than  a  kitchen. 
And,  I  declare,  your  roses  are  in  bud !  " 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  309 

An  odd  agitation  in  the  woman's  demeanor 
prompted  her  to  talk  on,  to  give  Elspeth  a  chance 
to  resume  her  usual  manner. 

"  Robert  says  that  Mrs.  Paull  has  gone  to  Peddling- 
ton  and  taken  Gladys  with  her.  Will  she  come  home 
on  the  stage,  or  stay  all  night  in  New  York  ?  " 

Elspeth  tossed  her  apron  over  her  head  and  sobbed 
chokingly,  still  standing  bolt  upright  in  the  middle  of 
the  floor. 

"  What  has  happened  ?  Is  there  any  bad  news  ? 
Tell  me,  quick ! "  demanded  Mrs.  Morse,  her  heart 
sinking  desperately  low.  "  Oh,  do  try  to  speak!  " 

"  Bad  news,  ma'am  !  There  could  hardly  be  waur 
for  us  a'  !  It 's  nane  that  wull  mak'  ye  more  than 
middlin'  sorry  !  "  faltered  the  handmaiden,  between 
the  gulps  that  essayed  to  swallow  her  emotion.  "  She 
bade  me  not  to  keep  back  the  truth  frae  ye,  who  aye 
lo'ed  the  misguided  lassie  weel,and  hae  proven  yerseP 
the  true  friend  to  us  in  a'  our  adversity." 

Mrs.  Morse  whitened  under  an  awful  foreboding. 

"  You  cannot  be  talking  about  Marie.  She  is  not 
dead  ?  " 

"  Mayhap  it  wad  be  better  for  us  and  for  herseP  an' 
she  war ! "  hopelessly  Gaelic  in  the  sloughs  of  her 
distress.  "  She 's  gane,  Mrs?  Morse  !  gane  awa'  to 
join  herseP  to  him  !  God  forgie  me !  but  I  could 
wish  he  had  sunken  to  the  bottom  o'  th'  seas  when 
he  crossed  them  himseP,  before,  like  the  eerie  de'il  he 
is,  he  temptit  me  bairnie  wha  I  nursed  \  these  arms 
when  she  waur  but  ane  hour  auld  —  to  follow  him  !  " 

Mrs.  Morse  felt  the  cold  sweat  ooze  out  upon  lips 
and  forehead. 


310  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

"  Elspeth,  what  are  you  saying  ?  I  cannot  —  I  will 
not  believe  that  Marie  has  eloped  !  she  would  not  run 
away  from  home  and  friends  to  join  any  man  alive. 
There  is  some  frightful  mistake  in  all  this." 

"  It 's  heaven's  ain  truth,  ma'am !  "  said  Elspeth. 
"  If  the  mistress  had  na'  carried  awa'  wi'  her  to  show 
to  Mrs.  Lanier,  the  bit  letter  that  cam'  by  the  day's 
mail  frae  th'  puir  childie  hersel',  I  could  read  it  oot 
to  ye  unner  her  ain  hand  and  seal.  Sae  shakey  and 
scratchet-like,  Mrs.  Morse,  I  could  guess  she  war 
greeting  sair  the  while  she  wrote  it.  I  had  it  in  me 
hand,  whilst  1  could  read  it  twice  over,  and  I  mind 
weel  how  it  ran.  That  wha'  sinks  far  in  the  heart  by 
way  o'  th'  een,  aye  lingers  there  lang. 

"  It  war  maistly  like  this  she  wrote  :  '  DEAR  MITHER, 
—  My  feyther  is  ill  in  Paw '  (did  e'er  a  Christian 
hear  o'  sic  an  ill-begotten  name  for  a  toun  ?).  <  Verra 
ill,  and  mayhap  like  to  dee.  I  hae  been  in  correspond 
ence  wi'  him  sin'  last  September.  He  is  puir  and 
an  invaleed,  wi'  naebody  to  care  for,  or  be  wi',  him. 
In  his  last  letter  just  received  —  the  whilk  I  eenclose 
-  ye  wull  see  that  he  hae  little  or  nae  hope  o'  getting 
weel.  I  hae  plenty  o'  money  to  tak'  care  o'  him  while 
he  is  alive,  wha'  wi'  my  Uncle  Roger's  legacy  and  the 
bit  I  hae  contrivit  to  s£ve  thae  two  years.' 

"  Did  ye  ever  hear  the  like  o'  that,  Mrs.  Morse  ? 
She  will  hae  fair  starrved  hersel'  to  put  by  siller  for 
that —  de'il!"  sputtering  with  the  vain  effort  to  think 
up  another  and  as  forcible,  if  less  hackneyed,  epithet. 

"  Poor  dear  child !  Go  on !  what  else  did  she 
say?" 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  311 

"  That  she  had  kenned  a'  th'  while  that  he  wad 
need  her ;  that  he  had  na  askit  her  to  come  to  him ; 
that  he  war  in  nae  eemmedeeate  danger,  and  that  the 
medical  man  thought  if  he  could  get  to  Algeria,  he 
might  e'en  recover.  She  kenned  better  than  that,  she 
said.  Her  feyther  was  trying  to  deceive  her  to  keep 
her  mind  easy. 

"  At  the  last  she  set  down  this  postscript :  '  Mother, 
ye  '11  forgie  me  when  ye  recklect  how  ye  ance  lo'ed 
him  yerseF.  I  hae  lo'ed  him  allers,  —  me  dear,  noble 
feyther !  sae  noble  and  sae  unhappy !  Ane  day  ye 
wull  be  conveenced  of  his  eennocence,  and  wull  bless 
me  because  I  did  no  leave  him  to  dee  alane  amang 
strangers.  Kees  the  children  for  me,  and  beg  Lanier 
not  to  be  fashed  wi'  me.'  And  at  the  verra  fut  o'  th' 
page,  '  Love  to  Elspeth.  She  maunna'  scold  me.' '' 

Her  voice  went  to  pieces  again  in  the  surf  of  her 
sobs. 

Mrs.  Morse  sat  miserable  and  helpless  for  a  minute, 
then  a  ray  darted  upon  her  mind. 

"  Was  the  name  of  the  place  where  Mr.  Paull  is, 
Pan?  "she  asked  eagerly.  "  Why,  my  husband  and 
brother  are  going  there  —  so  a  letter  from  Mr.  Morse, 
received  to-day,  tells  me.  They  will  look  him  up." 

The  fire  in  Elspeth's  eyes  dried  the  tears. 

"  'Deed,  ma'am,  I  've  me  doobts  if  he 's  ever  been 
there,  or  ill  at  all.  I  Ve  kenned  him  twenty  year  an' 
mair,  an'  the  times  he  tellt  th'  truth  war  mair  seldom 
than  th'  times  he  leed,  an'  kenned  he  war  leeing. 
All  he  wants  is  to  get  mair  siller  frae  the  innocent 
baby.  In  the  smooth,  fause  letter  frae  him  slippet 
into  hers,  he  speaks  of  money  she  's  sent  him,  and 


312  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

that  it  saved  him  frae  starving,  and  gat  him  meedical 
attendance,  an'  that  the  sight  o'  it  aye  gared  him 
greet  —  ah  !  ma'am,  is  it  ony  wonder  I  lose  me  wuts 
an'  me  bonriie  Engleesh  in  thinkin'  o'  my  sweet,  head  - 
strong  bairnie  in  the  hands  o'  thot  mon,  and  his 
maister,  the  de'il,  only  kens  in  what  manner  o'  com 
pany  beside  ? " 

"  It  is  all  very  sad  —  very  terrible  !  "  assented  the 
listener,  forced  to  collect  her  senses  by  the  frenzied 
state  of  the  whilom  phlegmatic  Scotchwoman.  u  But 
Mrs.  Paull  may  get  to  New  York  in  time  to  stop  her. 
When  was  she  to  sail  ?  " 

"  Yesterday.  Mrs.  Paull  will  gae  straight  to  her 
sister-in-law,  arid  the  two  will  try  to  find  by  what 
steamer  she  's  gane.  They  can  do  naught  ilse.  I  '11 
carry  the  mither's  face  wi'  me  down  to  me  grave. 
'T  was  like  one  wha'  had  gat  her  death-call.  An' 
never  a  bitter  word  or  look  !  Only,  *  Elspeth,  ye  '11 
not  tell  the  boys  what 's  gane  wrang  ?  I  '11  leave 
them  at  hame.  I  maun  tak'  the  dochter  he  's  left  to 
me  with  me  to  her  aunt's.  God  will  strengthen  me 
for  this  day,  also.'  There  maun  be  summat  far  agley 
in  the  warld,  Mrs.  Morse,  when  sic  a  mon  can  mar  the 
life  o'  sic  a  woman." 

"  I  cannot  but  hope  that  Mr.  Morse  can  be  of  some 
service  to  her,  and  to  our  poor  little  Marie,"  said  the 
pastor's  wife,  consolingly.  "  I  will  write  to  him  to 
night,  and  the  letter  will  go  out  by  Saturday's 
steamer.  Whether  her  father  is  at  Pau  or  not  (the 
word  was  spelled  P-a-u,  was  n't  it  ?),  Marie  will  go 
straight  there,  expecting  to  find  him.  What  a  wild, 
imprudent  idea  it  was,  —  flying  off  to  the  ends  of  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  313 

earth  alone !  A  young,  pretty  girl,  who  has  never 
been  a  hundred  miles  from  home  ! " 

"  She  was  aye  as  brave  as  brawss,  —  her  mitlier's 
ain  bairn  for  speerit,  —  and  wha  wad  gae  through  fire 
an'  water  for  love's  sake.  A  nee  he  gets  hold  o'  her, 
he  '11  ne'er  let  her  gang  till  every  bit  and  bittock  o' 
her  hard-got  siller  is  in  his  pouch.  God  forgie  me,  a 
sinner,  Mrs.  Morse !  but  when  I  think  o'  it,  I  could 
stop  his  fausse  breath  wi'  me  twa  auld  hands,  if  he 
stood  here  before  me  !  " 

Mrs.  Morse  was  a  peaceable  Christian  woman,  yet 
she  did  not  look  horrified  at  the  bloodthirsty  out 
burst.  She  asked  quietly,  — 

"  Where  are  Tom  and  Edwin  ?  " 

"  In  their  play-shop  in  th'  attic,  happy  as  kings,  wi' 
never  a  thocht  o'  what 's  come  to  their  sister,  an'  th' 
mither's  heart-break." 

"  Let  me  take  them  home  with  me  for  the  night 
—  until  their  mother  comes  back.  My  boys  will  be 
overjoyed  to  have  them,  and  you  will  be  more  com 
fortable  to  have  them  away  while  you  are  so 
unhappy." 

She  bore  the  two  lads  off  with  her,  delighted  on 
their  parts  with  the  prospect  of  the  visit,  leaving 
Elspeth  to  nurse  her  grief  and  wrath,  or  to  reason 
and  pray  herself  into  a  gentler  mood.  There  was 
literally  nothing  for  her  hands  to  do  until  it  should 
be  time  to  set  about  getting  supper  for  Robert  and 
herself.  It  was  but  four  o'clock  when  Mrs.  Morse 
departed  ;  the  house  was  in  perfect  order ;  the  kitchen, 
her  especial  domain,  was  speckless  and  shining  from 
the  polished  floor  to  the  copper  boiler  to  the  left  of 


314  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

the  range,  and  the  row  of  tins  gracing  the  shelf  above 
the  dresser.  Moreover,  for  perhaps  the  first  time 
since  she  was  a  woman  grown,  she  had  no  heart  to 
work.  All  the  inherited  savagery  of  her  Gaelic  blood 
was  in  a  ferment.  The  stern  integrity  and  uncom 
promising  judgment  of  her  Covenant  forbears  were 
arrayed  with  her  love  for  her  stolen  nursling  and 
fealty  to  her  beloved  mistress  against  the  author  of 
this  latest  and  foulest  wrong  to  an  unoffending  house 
hold.  She  had  never  really  believed  in  Ernest  Paull, 
even  when  he  won  the  unquestioning  devotion  of 
Alice  Lanier's  heart,  yet  in  all  her  years  of  service 
in  his  family,  she  had  held  her  peace  as  to  this,  her 
private  opinion.  Now  she  felt  as  if  her  soul  were 
swollen  blackly  with  the  accumulated  distrust  and 
dislike  of  twenty-five  years.  He  was  the  impersona 
tion  of  all  the  sorrow  that  had  followed  her  mistress, 
until,  but  for  divine  grace  and  the  gallant  champion 
ship  of  him  who  was  now  no  more,  she  must  have 
been  hounded  into  her  grave.  At  the  thought  of 
Roger  Lanier,  an  odd  constriction  closed  upon  the 
faithful  heart ;  two  tears  forced  themselves  from  her 
hot  eyes. 

"  If  he  war  here,  this  wad  na  'a  come  aboot !  "  she 
muttered.  "  It  mak's  me  fair  mad  to  think  his  money, 
that  he  meant  suld  be  a  peace-offering  to  the  blind, 
doited  bairn,  suld  fa'  into  sic  dirty  hands ! " 

A  loud  ring  at  the  door-bell  aroused  her.  She  was 
sitting  in  the  chimney-corner  facing  the  windows 
that  opened  upon  the  piazza.  When  Mrs.  Morse  went 
away,  the  cautious  care-taker  had  locked  the  main 
entrance  door,  leading  into  the  hall,  and  the  two  par- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  315 

lors  upon  the  left  and  right  of  this.  Never  a  tramp 
had  been  seen  about  the  place,  but  the  canny  Scot 
always  made  provision  for  the  unexpected.  Glancing 
from  the  window  nearest  her,  and  seeing  no  vehicle 
in  the  carriage-drive,  she  decided  to  answer  the 
appellant  by  way  of  the  kitchen  door. 

Opening  it,  and  stepping  beyond  the  threshold  to 
get  a  better  view  of  the  visitor,  she  saw  a  well-dressed 
man  standing  with  his  back  to  the  door  at  which  he 
had  rung.  He  faced  the  lake,  and  looked  about  him 
with  apparent  interest  in  the  landscape  or  premises ; 
his  profile  was  turned  to  Elspeth ;  one  hand,  cast 
carelessly  behind  him,  was  gloved ;  the  other  held  a 
cane,  and  was  bare. 

Elspeth  believed,  when  she  came  to  look  back  upon 
the  scene  and  interview,  that  she  recognized  this 
ungloved  hand  and  the  easy  grace  of  his  attitude 
before  she  knew  the  face  to  be  Ernest  PaulPs. 

He  had  not  heard  her  open  the  kitchen  door.  The 
March  wind  was  blustering,  and  the  pines  made  loud 
moan  in  his  ears.  When,  drawn  perhaps  by  the 
steady  glare  of  her  angry  eyes,  he  looked  toward  her, 
she  had  shut  herself  out  with  him,  and,  her  heels 
upon  the  sill  of  the  stout  door,  had  the  mien  of  one 
defending  a  fortress. 

He  walked  quickly  down  the  piazza,  his  feet  ring 
ing  upon  the  brick  pavement.  She  recollected  his 
gait  so  well !  the  slight  roll  that  never  degenerated 
into  a  swagger,  and  a  springy  rise  upon  the  toes,  — 
the  carriage  of  a  man  who  thought  well  of  himself, 
and  was  used  to  being  thought  well  of  by  the  world. 


316  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

In  nearing  her,  he  changed  the  cane  into  his  left 
hand,  and  held  out  the  bare  right. 

"  Ah,  Elspeth  !  how  do  you  do  ? " 

She  folded  her  arms  so  tightly  that  nothing  but  her 
own  will  or  a  crowbar  could  have  undone  them ;  her 
stare  was  stony,  yet  lurid,  like  the  "  slag"  of  a  smelt- 
ing-pot;  her  mouth  was  a  grim,  straight  line  that 
gave  her  the  physiognomy  of  a  North  American 
Indian.  She  neither  budged  nor  spoke. 

"  Why,  Elspeth !  my  good  woman  !  "  with  a  laugh 
of  friendly  patronage,  "  am  I  so  changed  that  you  do 
not  know  me  ?  " 

"  I  ken  ye  weel,  — mair  's  the  peety." 

Her  voice  rasped  like  the  sharpening  of  a  saw. 

He  laughed  again,  less  good-humoredly,  and  with 
a  scornful  cadence,  and  spoke  like  one  who  had  no 
disposition  to  dally  with  whims. 

"  Where  is  your  mistress  ?  " 

"  She 's  awa'  frae  her  hame.  Where  is  me  mis- 
thress's  dochter?" 

"  See  here,  Elspeth  !  You  cannot  impose  upon  me 
with  any  of  your  high-tragedy  airs.  We  know  one 
another  of  old,  and  I  am  less  inclined  to  submit  to 
impertinence  now  than  then.  I  asked  civilly  —  more 
civilly  than  you  deserve  to  be  treated  —  where  Mrs. 
Paull  is." 

"  And  I  asked  for  Miss  Marie,  that  ye  Ve  tolled 
frae  hame  and  freends  and  nateeve  land  to  follow  ye 
to  th'  eends  of  th'  airth,  and  ye  here  in  free  and  een- 
lichtend  America,  while  she 's  gane  to  speir  after  ye 
in  a  place  where  ye  've  niver  set  a  fute,  for  a'  I  ken." 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  317 

His  change  of  color  was  perceptible  through  the 
bronze  of  a  recent  sea-voyage. 

"  What  under  heaven  are  you  talking  about  ? "  he 
interrogated  harshly. 

"  Just  wha  I  hae  tellt  to  ye  !  that  my  mistress,  wha 
used  to  be  yer  wife  before  yer  prefairred  Jeezebeel 
to  Esther,"  —  stingingly  acrimonious,  —  "  hae  gane  to 
th'  ceety  for  tidings  o'  her  child,  wha  sailit  yestreen 
to  tend  ye  on  yer  seeck-bed  and  mayhap  to  receive 
yer  last  breath  (Heaven  save  and  keep  us  frae  sic 
awfu'  prevairication  and  lees  !),  —  ye  having  fuled  the 
puir  blind  lassie's  haid  wi'  sic  stuff  o'  yer  pooverty 
and  seeckness  as  micht  turn  the  stummick  o'  a  cast- 
iron  pot ! " 

"  Do  you  really  mean "  —  coming  a  step  nearer, 
and  speaking  hurriedly  —  "  that  the  silly  child  sailed 
yesterday  for  France,  hoping  to  see  me  there  ?  Why 
did  her  mother  allow  it  ?  Was  there  no  one  to  stop 
her  ?  This  is  abominable  !  " 

"  Ye  have  used  the  reet  word  for  ance  !  If  me 
releegion  allowed  me  to  put  in  a  harder,  I  wad  fleen 
it  at  ye.  And  the  abomination  is  at  yer  door,  the  sin 
upon  yer  heid,  where  th'  puneeshment  will  be  too  in 
the  Day  when  He  maketh  eenqueeseetion  for  the  blood 
o'  hearts  and  o'  souls." 

"  Hold  your  tongue,  woman !  You  say  that  Mrs. 
Paull  is  in  town  ?  Where  ?  " 

Elspeth  was  mute. 

"  Can't  you  understand  English  ?     Speak !  " 

No  response. 

"I'll  make  you  answer!"  Beside  himself  with 
anxiety  and  suspense,  he  put  out  his  hand  as  if  to 
take  her  by  the  shoulder. 


318  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Without  shrinking  so  much  as  a  hair's  breadth 
away  from  him,  she  drew  herself  up  to  her  full 
height,  until  she  towered  above  him ;  her  eyes  glowed 
dangerously. 

"  Lay  th'  weight  o'  yer  cowardly  finger  upo'  me, 
and  I  '11  stretch  ye  at  me  feet,  ye  fausse  carle !  YQ 
bade  me  '  haud  me  tongue  ! '  and  I  hae  baud  it.  I  '11 
rend  it  oot  by  th'  root  before  I  '11  tell  ye  where  me 
mistress  is.  What  are  ye  to  her  ?  What  is  she  to  ye, 
wha  desairted  her  and  deesgraced  the  bairns  she  had 
borne  to  ye,  and  wad  hae  let  them  starve  had  it  na 
been  for  him  wha  made  ye  afraid  to  veesit  America 
unteel  his  body  war  unner  th'  sod,  and  his  speerit  in 
heaven,  where  the  likes  o'  ye  wull  be  lang  in  meeting 
him,  while  there  's  a  God  o'  justeece  to  rule  th'  airth 
and  th'  heavens  !  If  ye  hae  ane  grain  o'  good  in  ye, 
gae  ye  back  to  the  far  countree  where  ye  hae  been 
spending  that  poor  lassie's  substance  in  reeotous  leev- 
ing,  and  send  her  hame  again  !  " 

"  When  will  Mrs.  Paull  be  at  home  ? "  as  if  he  had 
not  heard  a  word  of  denunciation  or  counsel. 

"  I  dinna  ken.     If  I  did,  ye  wad  be  nane  the  wiser." 

"  Where  are  the  children  ?  " 

"  They  're  nane  o'  them  within." 

"  Did  they  go  with  their  mother  ?  " 

Obstinate  silence  again. 

"  Elspeth  !  "  persuasively. 

Not  a  syllable. 

He  walked  up  the  piazza,  close  to  the  wall  of  the 
house,  eying  the  closed  shutters  sharply  in  passing, 
his  hands  behind  his  back,  turned  at  the  far  end,  and 
came  directly  up  to  her,  with  the  mien  of  a  man  will- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  319 

ing  to  reason,  yet  resolved  to  end  a  debate  by  strin 
gent  action. 

"  You  must  comprehend,  Elspeth,  being  an  unusually 
sensible  woman,  that  you  cannot  keep  up  this  sort  of 
thing  with  me.  The  children  are  mine,  and  I  can  get 
out  a  writ  that  will  give  them  to  me.  If  you  go  too 
far,  I  will  do  it.  No  power  on  earth  can  hinder  me. 
It  is  as  well  that  your  mistress  should  know  this.  If 
she  is  in  New  York,  I  advise  you  to  communicate  with 
her  at  once  and  inform  her  as  to  my  intentions.  If, 
as  I  more  than  suspect,  she  is  in  this  house,"  - 
stepping  back  to  survey  the  upper  windows,  and  rais 
ing  his  voice,  — "  you  may  tell  her  that  I  will  call 
again  in  a  week  for  her  answer." 

Misled  by  Elspeth's  immobility  and  down-dropt 
eyes,  he  went  on  more  threateningly, — 

"  In  point  of  fact,  I  have  the  right,  legal  and  moral, 
to  search  the  premises  for  myself.  You  certainly 
have  not  the  right  to  prevent  me." 

"  I  '11  tak'  it,  then  !  Ye  '11  enter  this  door  over  my 
deid  body.  And  suld  ye  try  it,  a  skreel  from  me  wad 
fetch  a  lang-legged  laddie  from  yon  barn,  wha  'd  think 
na  mair  o'  tossing  ye,  neck  and  crop,  oot  into  the  loch 
over  there,  than  if  ye 'were  a  rnad  dog.  I  may  not 
ken  muckle  o'  th'  la',  but  I  ken  wha  hae  the  stranger 
body  o'  twa  men,  an'  ye  are  nae  Goliath  o'  Garth ! " 

"  You  run  a  great  risk,"  returned  Mr.  Paull,  with 
affected  coolness.  "  I  have  warned  you.  Upon  your 
head  be  the  consequences.  I  have  crossed  the  ocean 
to  see  my  wife  and  to  claim  my  children  —  and  I  shall 
do  both.  You  may  deliver  my  message  to  Mrs.  Paull, 
or  not,  as  you  like.  It  makes  no  difference  to  me." 


320  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

He  sauntered  deliberately  off  the  porch  and  along 
the  drive  to  the  road  leading  to  the  highway,  striking 
at  stones  and  fallen  leaves  with  his  cane,  in  an  idle, 
lounging  fashion.  Between  tree-trunks  and  naked 
branches  Elspeth  saw  him  get  into  a  buggy  in  which 
sat  another  man,  and  the  two  drove  away  together. 

She  was  left  in  victorious  possession  of  the  field. 

For  how  long  ? 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 


Be  not  deceived;  God  is  not  mocked;  whatsoever  a 
man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap. — SAINT  PAUL. 

A  pitiful  thing  the  gift  to-day 
That  is  dross,  and  nothing  worth. 

Though  if  it  had  come  but  yesterday, 
It  had  brimmed  with  sweet  the  earth. 

M.  E.  SANGSTER. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

IN  one  particular,  at  least,  Elspeth's  skepticism  with 
regard  to  the  statements  made  by  her  former 
master  was,  in  a  measure,  unjust. 

The  man  who  strode  moodily  through  the  Pinehurst 
Woods  on  that  blustering  March  afternoon  was  not 
in  robust  health.  Had  her  excitement  suffered  her  to 
use  her  eyes  as  faithfully  as  was  her  custom,  she 
must  have  observed  that  he  was  thinner  than  when 
she  saw  him  last,  and  that  a  peculiar  hollowing  of  the 
chest  caused  him  to  stoop  slightly  in  walking.  He 
breathed  fast,  and  not  regularly,  after  swinging  him 
self  up  into  the  hired  carriage  awaiting  him ;  leaned 
back,  slouched  his  hat  over  his  brows,  and  remained 
silent  until  he  alighted  at  the  railway  station  at 
Peddlington. 

He  was  bitterly  chagrined  at  the  result  of  his  expe 
dition.  Just  two  weeks  before,  he  had  picked  up  a 
copy  of  a  New  York  paper  two  months  old,  in  a  bar 
ber's  shop  in  Monte  Carlo.  The  paper  contained 
what  purported  to  be  an  abstract  of  the  will  of  the 
late  Roger  Lanier,  wherein  his  estate  was  estimated 
at  over  two  million  dollars.  In  the  list  of  legacies  was 
one  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  and  a  handsome  coun 
try-seat  in  New  Jersey  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Paull,  and 
two  thousand  dollars  to  each  of  her  five  children. 


324  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

Marie  had  written  briefly  in  her  weekly  letter,  of 
her  uncle's  death,  —  brevity  her  father  was  incapable 
of  attributing  to  her  remorseful  disinclination  to  dwell 
upon  the  event.  She  had  not  alluded  to  the  will  at 
all,  and  the  news  was  momentous  to  the  exile.  The 
tidings  of  Roger  Lanier's  decease  could  not  be  other 
wise  than  welcome.  So  far  as  Ernest  Paull  had  ascer 
tained,  his  brother-in-law  was  the  only  person,  except, 
perhaps,  his  former  employer,  who  was  acquainted 
with  all  the  particulars  of  his  dishonorable  flight  from 
America.  A  better  man  than  he  to  whom  it  was 
addressed,  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  forgive  the 
letter  that  followed  him  to  Nice.  The  writer  had 
wasted  no  words  in  giving  the  refugee  to  understand 
that  his  expatriation  was  perpetual. 

"  I  have  refunded  the  stolen  money,"  he  wrote  tersely. 
"  I  did  this  to  save  my  sister's  name  from  open  dis 
grace.  Should  you  attempt  to  return  to  this  country, 
or  in  any  manner  annoy  her  or  her  children,  you  will 
be  given  up  to  justice.  The  sum  you  stole  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  your  late  employers  with  this  distinct 
understanding.  They  will  prosecute  you  without 
mercy.  Your  crime  is  not  condoned  by  their  accept 
ance  of  what  they  consider,  in  such  an  event,  4  hush- 
money/  to  be  returned  to  me.  If,  as  I  have  reason  to 
believe,  you  added  forgery  to  theft,  the  prosecution 
would  be  a  yet  graver  affair." 

The  gate  of  return  to  home,  country,  and  a  show 
of  respectability  was  double-locked  and  barred.  He 
had  no  resource  but  to  live  by  his  wits.  When  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Paul  Morgan  became  notorious  as  card- 
sharpers  in  one  place,  they  removed  to  another,  and 


THE  ROYAL   ROAD.  325 

assumed  another  alias,  until  his  partner  wearied  of 
the  precarious  existence  and  of  him,  and  left  him  to 
speculate  alone.  It  would  have  been  surprising  in 
these  circumstances  had  poor  Marie's  piteous  epistles 
reached  him.  With  all  his  keen  watch  of  New  York 
papers,  he  never  saw  one  line  relative  to  him  or  his 
family,  until  his  eyes  lighted  upon  the  notice  of  his 
daughter's  appointment  as  organist  in  St.  Gudule's. 
His  letter  to  her  was  a  cast  into  the  water  that  proved 
unexpectedly  profitable.  Her  answer  enclosed  a  bill 
of  exchange  for  one  hundred  dollars,  and  she  had  sent 
him  two  hundred  since  without  intimating  that  the 
amount  represented  self-denial  on  her  part  that  was 
actual  hardship.  He  had  played  unscrupulously  upon 
her  passionate  attachment  to  the  parent  idealized  by 
memory  and  imagination.  The  child  evidently  had 
resources  and  a  fat  private  purse.  To  whom  was  her 
tribute  due,  if  not  to  him  ? 

The  letter  containing  the  grievous  story  of  his 
invalidism,  and  the  physician's  recommendation  of 
Algeria  as  the  one  hope  of  saving  his  life,  was  a 
mixed  tissue  of  truth  and  deceit.  He  was  feebly  con 
valescent  from  a  seizure  of  what  the  English  doctor, 
summoned  hastily  to  the  gambling  hell  in  which  he 
fell  ill,  pronounced  a  menace  of  "  angina  pectoris." 

"  You  have  been  living  at  the  pace  that  kills,  my 
friend,"  he  warned  the  patient.  "  Pull  up,  or  you  will 
make  short  work  of  the  rest  of  the  way." 

Without  the  remotest  intention  of  tempting  his 
young  daughter  to  come  to  him,  he  had  written  in  his 
best  style  that  he  had  been  nigh  unto  the  gates  of 
death,  and  could  not  obey  the  doctor's  advice  for 


326  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

want  of  means.  He  calculated  upon  the  receipt  of 
another  and  a  larger  check  than  the  previous  remit 
tances,  and  was  counting  the  days  before  it  could 
reach  him,  when  the  paragraph  in  the  old  journal  gave 
a  new  phase  to  life  and  expectation. 

That  his  enemy  was  dead  had  meant  something  in 
the  line  of  fortunate  possibilities  for  him.  He  had 
little  fear  of  prosecution  or  disgraceful  publicity  from 
the  men  he  had  robbed,  now  that  their  inflexible 
prompter  was  out  of  the  way,  yet  he  felt  but  a  slight 
drawing  homeward.  Marie's  money  would  go  farther 
on  this  side  of  the  ocean.  In  New  York  he  must 
work,  or  feign  to  work  for  a  living,  and  he  loved  for 
eign  Bohemianism  better  than  domestic  respectability. 

Thirty  thousand  dollars,  added  to  the  sum  settled 
upon  Alice  by  her  father,  would  bring  a  tolerable  in 
come,  even  in  America,  when  one  had  a  roof  over  her 
head.  He  would  go  home  and  get  his  share  of  the 
goods  provided.  He  was  positive,  with  his  knowledge 
of  his  wife's  character,  that  she  would  not  turn  him 
from  her  door.  If  he  had  sinned  against  her,  he  had 
expiated  his  transgression  by  living  from  hand  to 
mouth,  and  by  enforced  separation  from  his  children. 
His  eyes  watered  at  the  latter  thought.  His  was  an 
affectionate,  shallow  nature,  and  such  make  a  specious 
show  to  the  world  and  to  themselves.  In  the  light  of 
his  interesting  discovery,  his  love  for  the  darlings  of 
his  fireside  approximated  heart-hunger.  He  con 
vinced  himself  that  impatience  to  clasp  them  once 
more  to  his  bosom  impelled  him  to  risk  his  fate  upon 
one  audacious  venture.  With  the  superstition  com 
mon  to  weak  natures,  he  resolved  to  hazard  the  rem- 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  327 

nant  of  Marie's  last  remittance  at  rouge-et-noir  that 
night.  If  he  won,  he  would  on  the  morrow  buy  a 
ticket  to  New  York.  If  he  lost,  he  could  not  go,  — 
therefore,  Destiny  had  decreed  a  different  lot  for  him. 
He  won  four  times  the  sum  he  laid  upon  the  table. 

His  first  call,  after  landing  in  New  York,  was  at 
Mrs.  Marcy's  fashionable  Boarding  and  Day  School 
for  Young  Ladies.  His  inquiry  for  Miss  Paull  was 
answered  by  the  information  that  she  was  not  in,  and 
that  the  footman  could  not  say  when  she  would  be. 
She  had  been  called  out  of  town  by  the  illness  of  a 
friend.  He  "  believed  it  was  her  mother." 

"  Can  I  see  Mrs.  Marcy  ?  "  asked  the  stranger. 

"  Mrs.  Marcy  is  not  at  home." 

"  One  of  the  teachers,  then.  I  must  know  where 
to  find  Miss  Paull." 

With  dexterity  acquired  by  foreign  practice,  he 
slipped  a  dollar  into  the  man's  hand,  and  was  forth 
with  ushered  into  a  reception  room.  To  him  pres 
ently  descended  an  under-teacher,  hurried  and  fagged, 
who  knew  nothing  beyond  what  Mrs.  Marcy  had 
dropped  incidentally  in  her  hearing ;  namely,  that  a 
substitute  must  be  found  for  Miss  Paull,  who  had 
been  summoned  to  the  sick-bed  of  a  relative. 

"I  asked  no  questions,"  added  the  drudge,  who 
looked  too  tired  to  be  inquisitive.  "  But,  knowing 
that  Miss  Paull's  family  reside  in  New  Jersey,  I  took 
it  for  granted  that  she  had  gone  there." 

She  was  not  especially  interested  in  her  fellow- 
teacher,  or  chronic  fatigue  made  her  unobservant,  else 
she  might  have  noted  the  striking  resemblance  be 
tween  the  inquirer  and  the  absent  girl.  The  footman 


828  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

had  made  better  use  of  his  opportunities,  for,  at 
luncheon,  he  reported  in  the  kitchen  his  impression 
that  the  disappointed  visitor  was  Miss  PaulPs  uncle 
from  abroad,  who  had  probably  come  to  America  to 
give  her  a  fortune.  "  He  was  a  genuine  swell  and  a 
perfect  gentleman,  and  enough  like  Miss  Marie  to  be 
her  father  forty  times  over." 

With  the  dazed  sensation  of  a  dreamer,  who  must 
awake  presently  and  find  himself  at  home  in  bed, 
Ernest  Paull  trod  the  once-familiar  streets  without 
seeing  a  friend  he  knew,  or  being  recognized  by  any 
one.  He  had  landed  early  in  the  morning,  and  had 
time  to  dine  at  his  hotel  before  taking  an  afternoon 
train  to  Pequod. 

The  aspect  of  Pinehurst  pleased  him  more  than  he 
had  expected.  It  was  a  cosey  corner  in  which  to  re 
cover  strength,  and  to  be  rehabilitated  by  degrees 
from  the  effect  of  circumstances.  During  the  drive 
from  Peddlington  he  had  speculated  as  to  the  possible 
seriousness  of  his  wife's  illness,  if  she  were  the  ailing 
relative.  A  sensation-lover  inborn,  he  arranged  a 
tableau  of  reconciliation  in  the  sick-chamber — per 
haps,  even,  at  the  death-bed  —  of  an  otherwise  exem 
plary  woman,  who  had  lent  too  ready  an  ear  to  the 
worldly  maxims  of  a  designing  brother.  Should  Alice 
die,  would  it  be  found  that  her  brother's  bequest  was 
hers  in  fee-simple  ?  or  would  it  be  ungenerously  lodged 
with  trustees,  or  entailed  upon  the  heirs  of  her  body  ? 
In  any  event,  he  could  depend  upon  his  sweet  Marie's 
disposition  toward  him.  It  might  perhaps  be  as  well 
—  in  the  mind  of  Providence  —  if  the  noble  girl  were 
to  become  the  head  of  the  household.  He  could  be 


THE   ROYAL    ROAD.  329 

very  comfortable  in  the  country  until  next  winter, 
with  little  Marie  to  cater  for  and  nurse  him. 

This  conclusion  was  prominent  in  his  thoughts,  as, 
turning  to  contemplate  the  wing  of  the  picturesque 
colonial  homestead,  he  met  Elspeth's  blazing  eye. 

The  dialogue  with  her  was  the  kick  of  the  dreamer 
to  the  basket  of  Amaschar.  Even  while  he  vapored 
to  her  of  his  rights  and  his  determination  to  maintain 
them,  he  was  aware  that  she  must  discover,  ere  long, 
the  absurdity  of  his  position.  Roger  Lanier  was 
dead ;  but  his  wife,  a  woman  of  much  force  of  charac 
ter,  was  fondly  attached  to  her  sister-in-law,  and 
rather  than  allow  her  to  be  imposed  upon  by  the  re 
turned  husband,  was  quite  capable  of  enforcing  his 
warning  to  the  banished  man.  His  only  hope  lay  in 
her  unwillingness  to  make  public  a  page  of  family  his 
tory  that  might  wound  her  pride.  He  wished,  when 
it  was  too  late,  that  he  had  forced  an  entrance  into 
the  house  which  was  morally  his  own.  If  Alice  were 
really  there  and  ill,  Marie's  place  was  at  her  bedside. 

Unless  —  and  subsequent  reflection  made  him  more 
and  more  fearful  of  this  —  the  story  of  her  departure 
for  France  were  true,  and  not  a  fabrication  of  the 
Scotch  virago.  He  had  never  known  Elspeth  to  tell 
a  lie ;  he  had  known  her  to  be  truthful  to  her  own 
disadvantage.  Her  excitement  was  unfeigned,  and 
what  would  arise  from  the  loss  of  one  of  the  children 
she  had  brought  up. 

His  heart  stood  still  in  the  horror  of  the  admitted 
probability.  Next  to  himself,  he  cared  more  for  his 
eldest  daughter  than  for  any  other  living  thing.  He 
comprehended  far  better  than  untravelled  Elspeth 


330  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

could  divine,  what  must  be  the  position  of  a  beautiful 
young  girl,  alone  and  unsophisticated,  who  should  set 
on  foot  in  Pau,  unaided  and  bewildered,  inquiries  con 
cerning  "  Mr.  James  Ellis,"  the  name  he  had  worn  there 
for  a  few  months,  and  to  which  Marie  had  addressed 
several  letters,  one  of  which  contained  a  bill  of  ex 
change.  He  was  not  utterly  depraved.  Few  men 
are.  Bohemianized  to  the  core  though  he  was,  cal 
lous  in  sensibilities  and  conscience  as  only  such  a 
career  as  his  had  been  abroad  can  make  a  human 
creature  who  once  yielded  outward  obedience  to  moral 
principles,  —  he  would  rather  have  resigned  the  hope 
of  future  pecuniary  aid  from  his  daughter  than  intro 
duce  her  into  the  scenes  that  had  known  him  most 
intimately  of  late.  He  had  not  scrupled  to  rob  his 
child ;  he  would  not  demoralize  her  even  in  thought. 
America  and  the  parental  roof  were  the  places  for 
girls. 

The  more  he  thought  of  the  awful  possibilities  con 
tingent  upon  what  he  stigmatized  as  "  a  mad,  roman 
tic  escapade,"  the  more  the  horror  grew.  He  drank 
heavily  as  bedtime  drew  near,  to  court  sleep  and 
respite  from  the  visions  multiplying  and  looming  be 
fore  his  imagination.  At  midnight  he  arose  from  an 
uneasy  pillow  to  dose  himself  with  an  opiate  pre 
scribed  by  the  English  physician.  He  had  hardly  lain 
down  before  terrible  pain  seized  him  with  tiger-like 
fierceness.  He  knew  the  teeth  and  grip  of  his  enemy. 
It  was  part  of  the  price  that  he  paid  for  "  the  pace 
that  kills."  After  repeated  attempts  to  rise,  the  dread 
of  dying  in  agony  alone  nerved  him  to  a  mighty 
effort.  He  rolled  from  the  bed,  and,  by  partly  drag- 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  331 

ging,  partly  rolling  himself  across  the  room,  reached 
the  bell,  pulled  himself  up  to  it,  rang  and  rang,  then 
fell  upon  the  floor. 

Three  days  of  unspeakable  suffering  had  elapsed 
when  he  left  his  chamber,  haggard  and  feeble,  as 
from  as  many  weeks  of  illness.  When  pain  and  alter 
nating  stupor  let  him  think  during  this  confinement, 
his  mind  ran  with  feverish  persistence  upon  one 
topic. 

Marie,  on  the  sea,  —  a  friendless  wanderer,  landing 
at  a  foreign  port  with  no  one  to  welcome  or  care  for 
her,  distraught  and  terrified  amid  the  pushing,  curious 
crowds  of  the  popular  resort  where  she  had  hoped  to 
find  him.  Always  she  was  a  sacrifice  to  filial  devo 
tion.  Sometimes  he  was  angry  at  the  unworldly  reck 
lessness  with  which  she  had  thrown  up  her  position 
in  the  school  and  probably  in  the  church,  to  fly  to 
him.  Oftener  he  could  have  dashed  his  head  against 
the  wall  in  mad  regret  for  his  overstrained  appeal 
to  her  love  and  compassion  that  had  resulted  so 
calamitously. 

Calamitously  to  him,  —  alone,  suffering,  and  nearly 
penniless  in  a  city  where  his  nearest  of  blood  would 
repudiate,  or,  at  best,  merely  tolerate  him !  He  had 
blundered  atrociously  in  letting  temper  get  the  better 
of  discretion  when  provoked  by  Elspeth's  insolence. 
Whatever  relentings  might,  under  favorable  circum 
stances,  have  visited  his  wife's  heart,  he  had  antago 
nized  her  by  threatening  to  deprive  her  of  her  chil 
dren.  Empty  as  she  might  know  the  menace  to  be 
after  his  wilful  desertion  of  his  family  and  two  years 
of  silence,  she  would  accept  the  gasconade  as  a  token 


332  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

that  he  was  prepared  for  war  rather  than  for  peace. 
He  had  put  her  on  her  guard  and  presumably  on  her 
mettle,  and  he  knew  the  quality  of  the  Lanier  spirit. 
Twice  he  wrote  to  her ;  once  in  the  doughty  strain  of 
an  injured  man,  demanding  an  interview  and  oppor 
tunity  for  explanation.  The  letter  lay  on  his  table  all 
night,  was  re-read  in  the  morning,  and  burned.  It 
offended  his  taste,  and  was  undiplomatic.  The  second 
was  studiously  incoherent,  and  sincere  only  so  far  as 
he  represented  himself  as  distracted  at  the  rash  step 
taken  by  their  daughter.  His  florid  appeals  to  the 
love  his  wife  had  once  professed  for  him,  his  protes 
tations  of  remorseful  tenderness  and  entreaties  to  be 
received  back  into  some  measure  of  regard  as  the 
lover  of  her  youth  and  father  of  her  children,  —  were 
so  strained  and  artificial  as  to  disgust  himself  before 
the  message  was  completed. 

^He  could  imagine  how  Alice  would  look  while  read 
ing  it.  She  was  a  true  Lanier  in  her  lofty  disdain  of 
sham  sentiment.  He  had  never  been  afraid  of  her  in 
the  old  times.  He  quailed  at  the  idea  of  meeting  her 
clear,  honest  eyes  now  that  she  knew  him  for  what 
he  was,  —  forger,  thief,  liar,  and  bigamist.  Roger 
Lanier  had  frankly  applied  all  of  these  titles  to  him 
in  the  scathing  letter  addressed  to  "  Mr.  Paul  Morgan, 
Nice,  France."  Marie  had  written  respectfully  of  her 
mother,  but  with  no  affectation  of  concealment  of  her 
uncle's  influence  over  his  sister.  "  Uncle  Roger  has 
settled  mother  and  the  children  in  one  of  his  country- 
houses,  which  he  has  spared  no  money  or  pains  in 
making  comfortable,  and  is  advisor-general  in  every 
thing  that  concerns  the  household."  "  He  and  I  are 


THE  ROYAL   ROAD.  333 

distantly  polite  to  each  other,"  said  another  letter. 
u  While  he  is  your  enemy,  he  can  never  be  my  friend, 
and  this  he  has  been  made  to  understand  more  than 
once.  All  the  same,  I  cannot  question  his  attachment 
to  mother  and  to  Lanier." 

On  the  sixth  day  after  the  attack  that  had  stolen 
so  much  of  his  strength  and  energy,  Ernest  Paull 
paid  his  week's  board,  and  had  exactly  one  dollar  and 
thirty  cents  left  in  the  world.  The  doctor's  fees  had 
been  unexpectedly  large,  and  illness  in  a  city  hotel  is 
a  costly  indulgence.  Under  the  spur  of  the  discovery, 
he  made  up  his  mind  abruptly  to  call  upon  Roger 
Lanier's  widow. 

Putting  upon  the  errand  the  face  which  he  imagined 
it  would  be  dressed  in  by  conscious  innocence,  he  sent 
up  a  card  upon  which  he  had  pencilled  his  real  name. 

Mrs.  Lanier  came  down  at  once ;  a  handsome  woman, 
doubly  dignified  by  widow's  weeds ;  collected  and  seri 
ous  in  demeanor,  and  so  utterly  free  from  discompos 
ure  of  any  kind  that  he  was  instantly  aware  of  her 
knowledge  of  what  Elspeth  could  tell. 

Her  next  action,  after  acknowledging  his  respectful 
salutation  by  a  silent  bend  of  the  head,  defined  their 
relative  position.  She  remained  standing  in  an  easy, 
expectant  attitude  by  a  table  near  the  front  windows 
of  the  drawing-room,  thus  compelling  him  to  remain 
upon  his  feet.  He  had  retained  his  hat,  and  not  re 
moved  his  overcoat,  and  felt  awkwardly  isolated  in 
the  exact  middle  of  the  apartment.  A  tax-gatherer 
or  a  plumber  would  have  had  more  gracious  audience. 
Supersensitive  to  trifles,  he  appreciated  her  advantage 
and  his  loss  at  the  outset. 


334  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

His  manner,  under  the  trying  circumstances,  was 
self-respectful  and  deferential,  without  a  symptom  of 
embarrassment. 

"  I  have  called,  Mrs.  Lanier,  upon  confidential  and 
personal,  that  is,  family,  affairs.  Can  we  talk  in 
some  less  public  place?" 

"  It  is  my  wish  to  hear  what  you  have  to  say 
here,  Mr.  Paull.  Our  interview  will  be,  of  necessity, 
short." 

Polished  ice  would  have  been  as  fur  compared  with 
her  accents  ;  her  eyes  were  steady. 

He  had  known  this  woman  from  her  childhood  and 
his ;  as  his  sister-in-law,  he  had  jested  familiarly  with 
her,  had  been  wont  to  kiss  her  at  meeting  and  at 
parting.  His  head  whirled,  and  a  pang  shot  from  the 
left  to  the  right  lung  like  a  fiery  needle.  He  must 
be  master  of  himself,  —  at  any  rate,  while  here. 

"  I  take  your  meaning,  madam,  and  will  be  as  brief 
as  is  compatible  with  the  gravity  of  my  communica 
tion.  I  have  been  extremely  ill  since  my  unfortunate 
visit  to  Pequod,  or  I  should  have  seen  you  before. 
I  learned  then,  to  my  astonishment  and  regret,  that 
my  daughter  Marie  had  sailed  for  France  to  rejoin 
me, —  an  extraordinary  step  which  I  should  have 
opposed  strenuously  had  I  anticipated  it.  It  is  my 
earnest  desire  to  repair,  as  far  as  may  be,  the  indirect 
injury  I  have  done  the  poor  child  in  writing  somewhat 
freely  of  the  precarious  state  of  my  health,  thereby 
inducing  her  —  most  unintentionally,  as  I  solemnly 
declare  —  to  come  to  me.  I  wish  to  sail  by  to-mor 
row's  steamer  to  Havre  ;  proceed  thence  to  Pau,  and 
bring  her  back  to  her  mother  and  her  home.  It  is 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  335 

the  least  that  I  can  do  and  —I  am  grieved  to  say  — 
the  utmost." 

"It  is  unnecessary  to  put  yourself  to  so  much 
trouble,  Mr.  Paull.  We  have  sent  a  cable  despatch 
to  friends  on  the  other  side  to  meet  my  niece  upon 
her  arrival  at  Havre  and  send  her,  under  a  suitable 
escort,  back  to  New  York.  You  may  be  quite  easy 
with  regard  to  her." 

A  movement,  slight  but  expressive,  intimated  her 
impression  that,  his  business  having  been  despatched, 
he  would  take  his  leave.  Words  would  not  have  been 
a  more  explicit  dismissal.  The  blood  rushed  impetu 
ously  to  his  pale  face  ;  the  tremor  in  his  voice,  if 
artistic,  was  genuine,  albeit  his  ejaculation  was  more 
rhetorical  than  devout. 

"Thank  God!  I  have  suffered  untold  agonies  in 
reflecting  upon  the  possible  consequences  of  my  child's 
rash  generosity.  You  have  taken  an  intolerable 
burden  from  my  heart.  I  will  detain  you  but  a  min 
ute  longer  :  Virginia  !  Mrs.  Lanier  !  is  there  no  mercy 
in  the  heart  of  a  good  woman  for  a  penitent  sinner  ? " 

Another  gesture,  more  decided  and  expressive  than 
the  former,  arrested  him  on  the  word.  The  cold 
severity  of  her  gaze  did  not  change. 

"  I  must  decline  to  discuss  abstract  subjects  with 
Mr.  Paull,"  she  said  pointedly. 

He  raised  his  head  haughtily. 

"  I  might  have  known  what  measure  of  Christian 
charity  I  should  meet  with  in  this  house.  I  was  a 
fool  to  hope  for  anything  else.  I  came  here  with  a 
heart  full  of  sorrowful  and  loving  thoughts,  —  the 
broken  and  contrite  spirit  which  pietists  despise. 


336  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

I  am  hungry  for  news  of  my  wife  and  little  ones  ;  I  am 
ruined  in  health  and  a  beggar ;  and  you,  who  could 
tell  me  all  I  long  to  know,  —  you,  who  profess  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Him  who  called  sinners  to 
repentance,  —  sneer  at  me  in  my  extremity,  trample 
me  under  your  feet  with  cold  cruelty  that  reminds 
me  whose  pupil  you  are.  I  should  have  known  better 
than  to  expect  one  crumb  from  any  table  in  Roger 
Lanier's  house.  He  hated  me  while  he  lived.  I  might 
have  comprehended  that,  as  his  wife  and  a  Christian, 
you  must  meet  confession  and  petition  with  holy 
insult." 

Furious  as  he  appeared,  angry  as  he  really  was,  he 
had  put  the  harangue  together  cleverly  until  his  men 
tion  of  her  husband's  name.  She  lifted  the  hand  that 
had  rested  lightly  upon  the  table ;  chill  civility  was 
exchanged  for  severity  as  frigid. 

"  You  have  set  your  action  in  entering  this  house 
in  the  proper  light  by  your  last  sentence.  I  have 
only,  in  closing  this  interview,  to  express  my  regret 
at  having  granted  it." 

She  moved  toward  the  bell. 

"  You  need  not  summon  your  footman  to  put  me 
into  the  street,"  he  said  with  biting  emphasis.  "  To 
be  driven  off  the  premises  of  the  elect  twice  in  one 
week  should  convert  even  such  a  reprobate  as  I. 
Whatever  becomes  of  the  ruin  the  Laniers  have  made 
of  what  was  once  a  man,  the  Creator  of  us  all  —  if 
you  will  admit  that  He  had  a  hand  in  my  make-up  — 
knows  where  the  responsibility  will  rest  — 

The  rapid  patter  of  small  feet  sounded  on  the 
stairs  ;  two  little  girls  appeared  in  the  arched  doorway. 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  337 

"  Mamma !  "  twittered  the  taller  of  the  two,  "  may 
Gladys  and  I  -  Oh  !  I  beg  pardon !  "  as  she  per 
ceived  that  her  mother  was  not  alone. 

Her  black  frock  showed  her  to  be  a  daughter  of  the 
house ;  the  golden  silk  of  her  companion's  curls,  her 
limpid  blue  eyes  and  delicate  features,  were  Marie's 
and  her  father's. 

He  took  one  eager  step  toward  her.  Mrs.  Lanier 
interposed  her  stately  figure,  and  spoke  with  mild 
decision :  — 

"  Alice,  dear,  I  am  engaged,  as  you  see.  Take  your 
cousin  into  the  library,  and  shut  the  door  when  you 
go  in.  I  will  be  there  in  a  moment." 

She  was  disappointed  if  she  had  anticipated  a 
further  scene.  The  wretched  man  walked  directly 
to  the  front  door,  laid  his  hand  on  the  lock,  and 
glanced  back. 

"  Is  her  mother  here  too  ?  "  he  asked. 
"  She  is  not." 

He  stumbled  on  the  stone  steps,  and  caught  at  the 
railing  to  save  himself.  A  man  who  was  passing, 
after  a  quick  glance  at  the  handsome  house  he  was 
leaving,  and  a  keener  at  himself,  stopped  and  came 
back. 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,  but  are  you  ill  ?  Is  there  any 
thing  I  can  do  for  you  ? " 

A  hot  oath  flew  from  PaulPs  lips.  "  What  business 
is  that  of  yours  ?  Do  I  look  like  a  tramp  ?  " 

"Not  a  bit!  not  a  bit!"  rejoined  the  would-be 
helper,  jocularly.  « I  beg  your  pardon !  The  man 

who  needs  me  is  my  neighbor.     If  you  don't you  're 

not !    Good-afternoon." 

22 


338  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

It  was  afternoon  by  now.  People  who  had  homes, 
and  liberty  to  return  to  them,  clogged  all  the  uptown 
avenues  of  travel ;  the  sea-air  bit  at  him  at  every  cross- 
street,  raw  with  salt,  and  numbing  to  flesh  and  bone. 
Down  these  shorter  streets  he  had  glimpses  of  the 
west,  where  the  sun  was  going  down  and  staining  the 
river-fogs  a  dingy  red.  This  would  be  one  of  the 
nights  when  it  was  wise  to  take  the  bridge-route  to 
Brooklyn  instead  of  the  ferry. 

The  thought  of  Brooklyn  strayed  again  into  his 
mind,  three  hours  later,  as  he  emerged  from  a  place 
he  used  to  frequent  when  the  exchequer  was  low.  It 
was  well  down-town,  and  he  had  had  a  hot  supper 
there  for  thirty-five  cents,  several  drinks  at  the  bar, 
and  the  chance  to  gamble  with  the  remaining  half- 
dollar.  The  man  who  won  it,  laughed  brutally  in 
handing  back  eight  cents. 

"  Three  for  the  bridge  and  five  for  the  street-car !  " 
He  was  drunker  than  Paull,  and  disposed  to  be  liberal. 
"  You  belong  over  the  river,  don't  you  ?  I  won't  give 
the  New  York  cops  a  chance  to  run  you  in." 

Paull  pocketed  the  coins,  and  passed  into  the  street. 
The  fog  was  foul  in  that  quarter,  leaving  a  taint  of 
oily  uncleanness  upon  the  tongue.  Brooklyn  would 
be  sweeter,  —  to  breathe,  —  and  was  a  cheaper  place 
to  live  in.  He  would  go  over  and  "  prospect "  this 
very  night.  He  must  leave  that  first-class  hotel.  He 
would  go  back  after  he  had  secured  lodgings  over  the 
river,  and  get  his  trunk.  It  was  full  of  handsome 
clothing.  A  man  in  his  profession  could  not  afford 
to  be  shabby. 

Apparent  prosperity  was  a  part  of  his  capital.     Still 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  339 

he  must  look  up  a  Brooklyn  pawnbroker  to-morrow, 
and  "  hock  "  a  few  things.  He  must  have  food  and 
shelter  until  he  could  turn  himself.  He  lived  in 
Brooklyn  once  —  or  his  family  did.  He  would  go  to 
Brooklyn  by  all  means.  After  all  —  might  not  Alice 
have  kept  her  town-house  ?  It  was  not  likely  that  she 
lived  all  the  year  round  in  that  beastly  country  hole. 
A  cunning  gleam  lit  his  watery  eyes.  She  was  prob 
ably  there  now  —  in  hiding.  He  laughed  outright  at 
the  thought  of  how  he  would  circumvent  Virginia 
Lanier,  —  the  cold-blooded  snake  ! 

His  thoughts  were  getting  hazy.  American  drinks 
were  "  heady." 

He  had  walked  very  far,  and  was  tired  in  legs  and 
head.  At  363  Mendebras  Avenue  they  answered 
rudely  his  civil  inquiries  for  Mrs.  Paull. 

"  No  such  person  had  ever  lived  there  so  far  as 
they  knew." 

He  decided  to  walk  back  to  New  York  ;  that  is,  if  he 
could  "  run"  the  ferry.  He  had  had  a  watch  when 
he  called  at  Mrs.  Lanier's.  He  recollected  looking 
at  it  in  a  saloon  on  the  Brooklyn  side  of  the  bridge. 
A  saloon  with  scarlet  curtains  at  the  windows,  and 
frescos  on  the  inner  walls.  A  band  was  playing 
"Razzle  Dazzle;"  and  girls  with  pointed  bangs  and 
red  cheeks  were  waiting  upon  men  who  sat  with  their 
hats  on,  and  drank  beer  and  cocktails,  and  smoked 
strong  cigars.  He  had  his  watch  then,  and  no  small 
change  to  pay  for  his  drinks.  He  mentioned  this  to 
the  bar-keeper,  and  promised  to  call  in  to-morrow, 
early,  and  settle.  The  bar-keeper  —  or  somebody  else 
—  had  said  that  was  "  all  right."  He  had  his  watch 


340  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

in  his  hand  then,  and  did  not  recollect  putting  it  back 
into  his  pocket  when  he  got  into  the  street.  He 
would  call  at  that  saloon  the  first  thing  in  the  morn 
ing,  and  see  if  he  had  left  it  on  the  counter. 

This  was  a  nasty  night,  and  Brooklyn  had  the 
beastliest  climate  on  the  globe,  —  catarrhal,  consump 
tive,  neuralgic.  That  must  be  neuralgia  that  stabbed 
him  to  the  heart  every  few  minutes.  The  beefsteak 
he  had  for  supper  was  as  tough  as  sole-leather. 

Ten  knives  instead  of  one  were  struck  into  his 
chest,  and  a  red-hot  iron  band  seemed  to  crush  in  his 
lungs.  With  a  despairing  groan,  he  sank  down  upon 
a  door-step,  tearing  at  his  clothes  to  loosen  the  awful 
pressure. 


CHAPTER    XIX, 


Definite  work  is  not  always  that  which  is  cut  and 
squared  for  us,  but  that  which  conies  as  a  claim  upon 
the  conscience,  whether  it  is  nursing  in  a  hospital  or 
hemming  a  handkerchief.  —  E.  M.  SEWALL. 

Christ  in  His  heavenly  garden  walks  all  day, 
And  calls  to  souls  upon  the  world's  highway, 
Wearied  with  trifles,  maimed  and  sick  with  sin ; 
Christ  by  the  gate  stands,  and  invites  them  in. 

F.  T.  PALGRAVE. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

"  T  AM  sadly  afraid  thafc  Marie  has  not  been  quite 
-*-  candid  in  this  affair,"  said  Mrs.  Barnes,  with  a 
look  of  real  concern.  "  I  am  very  fond  of  that  child, 
with  all  her  faults.  She  has  a  heart  as  deep  as  a 
well,  and  generous  impulses.  The  very  devotion  to 
her  wretched  father,  which  has  warped  one  side  of 
her  nature,  springs  from  a  worthy  root.  But  I  cannot 
excuse  her  for  telling  her  mother  that  she  has  been 
in  correspondence  with  him  since  last  September,  and 
leaving  her  to  infer  that  she  had  not  written  to  or 
heard  from  him  until  then.  Why,  the  first  time  I 
ever  met  her  was  in  the  post-office  in  Fulton  Street, 
when  she  was  asking  for  a  stamp  that  would  take  a 
letter  to  Nice,  in  France.  She  stamped  it  as  it  lay  on 
the  counter ;  and  in  the  casual  way  in  which  one  sees 
such  things,  I  observed  that  it  was  addressed  to  '  Mr. 
Paul  Morgan.'  That  was  one  of  his  aliases,  you 
know.  I  should  never  have  thought  of  the  incident 
again  had  not  her  voice  sounded  so  like  her  mother's 
that  I  looked  at  her,  and  followed  her  out  to  ask  if 
her  name  were  Paull.  When  Mrs.  Paull  told  me  yes 
terday  that  her  husband  had  been  known  abroad  as 
4  Mr.  Paul  Morgan,'  it  all  flashed  upon  me.  Of  course, 
I  said  nothing  to  her  of  the  meeting  and  the  letter. 


344  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

She  has  sorrow  enough  without  it.  But  I  wish  —  1 
wish  Marie  had  not  said  that ! " 

Mrs.  Williams  shook  her  head  dolorously. 

"  I  can't  see  through  it  —  nor,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
far  into  it.  I  'd  have  said,  if  asked,  that  while  the 
child  is  headstrong  and  high-strung  to  that  extent  that 
when  her  blood  is  up,  I  Ve  thought  to  myself  that  I  'd 
as  lief  strike  matches  on  a  powder-keg  all  day  as  live 
in  the  house  with  her,  there  is  n't  an  atom  of  deceit 
in  her.  She 's  too  outspoken  for  her  own  comfort 
and  that  of  other  people.  If  she  has  circumvented 
the  truth  this  time,  it 's  the  outcropping  of  the  father's 
blood  in  her.  Her  teeth  are  set  on  edge,  and  sharp 
ened  to  make  mince-meat  of  facts,  because  such  sour 
grapes  have  been  '  the  chief  of  his  diet,'  as  Mother 
Goose  says,  for  all  these  years." 

"  He  has  much  to  answer  for,  if  only  for  the  wrong 
done  to  this  one  child." 

"  You  may  say  it.  I  declare  for  it,  Mrs.  Barnes, 
when  I  get  to  studying  over  what  depends  upon  the 
way  fathers  and  mothers  behave  and  think  and  feel, 
1  think  that  if  I  had  children  to  raise,  I  'd  begin  to 
preach  to  them  of  their  responsibility  as  parents  by 
the  time  they  could  say,  '  Now  I  lay  me.' " 

"  One  poor  wife,  who  labored  prayerfully  to  bring 
up  her  children  in  the  right  way,  is  reaping  a  woful 
harvest  of  her  husband's  sowing,"  returned  Mrs. 
Barnes,  sadly.  "  And  here  comes  trouble  upon  trouble 
in  his  return  to  America.  It  was  a  bold  thing  to 
do,  and  yet,  as  it  now  appears,  safe  enough.  Roger 
Lanier  was  the  only  man  to  be  feared,  and  he  knew 
it.  But  for  her  heroic  faith,  and  her  practice  of 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  345 

trusting  God,  in  deed  as  well  as  in  theory,  to  care  for 
the  interests  she  commits  to  Him,  she  must  have  gone 
wild  over  Ernest  Paull's  cowardly  threat  to  claim  the 
custody  of  the  children.  Of  course,  as  Dr.  Barnes 
says,  it  was  all  talk,  intended  to  frighten  women  and 
children,  but  it  shows  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the 
man." 

"  Where  are  the  poor  babies  now  ?  " 

"  Mrs.  Morse  has  the  two  boys  still.  She  carried 
them  off  with  her  on  a  visit  to  her  mother  in  Philadel 
phia  the  day  after  Mr.  Paull  was  in  Pequod.  Elspeth 
went  to  the  parsonage  and  told  her  all  about  it,  then 
took  the  nine-o'clock  train  to  New  York,  with  a  letter 
from  Mrs.  Morse  to  Mrs.  Paull  in  her  pocket,  suggesting 
the  very  best  thing  to  be  done  in  the  circumstances, — 
a  cablegram  to  Mr.  Morse.  He  answered  Mrs.  Paull 
within  six  hours  after  the  despatch  left  New  York : 
'  Will  care  for  your  bird.'  r 

"  Is  n't  that  like  Mr.  Morse  ?  Who  knows  —  don't 
laugh  and  tell  me  again  that  I  have  a  keen  nose  for 
providence  —  but  would  n't  it  be  a  providence  if  this 
wild-goose  chase  of  the  dear  child's  should  be  the 
means  of  drawing  her  and  Dr.  Lyell  nearer  together  ? 
If  ever  a  girl  needed  a  steady,  kind,  right-minded 
husband,  she  does." 

"  I  wish  I  could  hope  for  such  an  ending  to  her 
mad  folly.  From  what  I  have  heard  of  Dr.  Lyell,  he 
considers  the  price  of  a  discreet  woman  above  rubies. 
Mrs.  Lanier  very  considerately  added  to  the  despatch, 
'  Her  father  is  here.'  Otherwise,  no  entreaties  or 
commands  would  have  brought  Marie  home." 

"  Gladys  is  still  with  Mrs.  Lanier,  you  say?" 


346  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  She  is.  The  poor  mother  went  back  to  Pinehurst 
alone  three  days  ago.  I  spent  yesterday  arid  last 
night  with  her.  She  is  brave  and  trustful,  but  worn 
to  a  mere  shadow  by  these  latest  trials.  It  was  bad 
enough  to  learn  that  her  daughter  had  gone  off  alone 
to  such  a  man  as  we  know  her  father  to  be.  It  was 
worse,  if  possible,  to  think  pf  her  landing,  unprotected 
and  friendless,  in  a  foreign  country.  But  the  hardest 
effort  of  faith  is  to  believe  that  good  can  come  of 
the  appearance  in  the  home  given  her  by  her  brother 
(where  she  has  toiled  so  nobly  to  defray  her  husband's 
debt  to  that  brother),  of  this  bad-tempered,  vindictive, 
broken-down  adventurer,  whom  she  cannot  present  to 
her  boys  as  their  father.  If  he  had  returned  penitent 
and  decent,  I  believe  —  I  am  sure  —  that  she  would 
have  received  him.  Her  views  of  the  might  of  the 
marriage-contract  are  exceedingly  and  righteously 
strict.  As  it  is,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  nothing  but 
misery  and  disgrace  can  come  of  it.  The  Royal 
Road  "  —  a  smile  breaking  through  the  cloud  —  "  is 
the  only  way  that  is  not  hedged  up  for  my  afflicted 
friend." 

"That  never  is  hedged  up,  His  Holy  Name  be 
praised  !  "  responded  Mrs.  Williams,  devoutly.  "  It 
is  the  highway  where  the  redeemed  of  the  Lord  can 
always  walk.  She  finds  the  burden  of  this  dark 
day  as  much  as  she  can  bear  with  all  the  help  she 
can  get." 

"  It  is  all  she  can  carry.  I  told  her  so,  and  she 
answered, '  Unless  the  Father  should  see  fit  to  add 
to  it.  Then  He  would  have  to  increase  the  sup 
ply  of  daily  grace.  I  am  living  up  to  my  allowance.' 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  347 

You  can  think  how  she  would  say  it,  and  smile  in 
saying  it.  As  for  me,  i  caught  myself  listening  by 
day  and  by  night  for  that  man's  step  upon  the  porch. 
If  a  shadow  passed  the  window  where  we  were  at 
work,  I  started  with  the  fear  that  he  might  be  there 
armed  with  a  search-warrant,  or  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  or  determined  to  see  and  talk  with  her. 

"As  for  our  brave  Elspeth," -  —  Mrs.  Barnes's  love 
of  fun  getting  the  better  of  her  sympathy  in  an  actual 
laugh,  —  "  she  stalks  about  the  place  like  a  grenadier, 
eyes  alert,  and  ears  pricked  up,  and  nostrils  quivering, 
ready  for  battle.  I  have  my  suspicions  that  she  feeds 
that  big  dog  upon  raw  meat  to  make  him  savage.  I 
know  that  she  keeps  him  chained  by  the  kitchen-door 
all  day,  and  that  he  patrols  the  premises  all  night.  I 
used  to  hear  his  heavy  feet  marching  up  and  down 
the  piazza,  and  once  an  hour  making  the  rounds  of 
the  house.  Even  Robert  had  a  watchful  look  I  had 
not  believed  him  capable  of.  Up  to  ten  o'clock  to-day, 
nothing  more  had  been  heard  of  Paull  than  if  Elspeth 
had  throttled  him,  and  thrust  him  under  the  rotten  ice 
which  is  beginning  to  float  down  the  lake.  My  hus 
band  does  not  like  the  looks  of  this.  He  thinks  that 
Paull  is  planning  some  ugly  surprise  that  will  annoy, 
if  it  does  not  terrify  his  wife,  —  such  as  spying  out  the 
children's  hiding-places,  and  trying  to  seize  them.  1 
think  that  he  is  waiting  to  get  legal  advice,  or,  what 
is  more  likely,  hoping  to  wear  out  Alice's  spirit  by  a 
mysterious  silence.  There  is  nothing  harder  to  bear 
than  a  vague  dread.  I  believe  him  to  be  capable  of 
anything,"  added  the  whole-souled  little  woman,  who, 
like  most  warm  lovers,  was  a  good  hater. 


348  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  If  I  had  any  opinion  on  the  subject  —  which  I 
don't  presume  to  have,"  Nurse  Williams  announced, 
folding  up  her  knitting,  preparatory  to  going  home,  — 
"  it  would  be  that  he  has  taken  vessel  and  gone  back 
where  he  came  from,  to  see  if  he  can  get  hold  of  his 
daughter.  He  's  maybe  uneasy  about  her,  knowing 
the  ways  of  foreign  parts  as  he  does,  and  that  women 
can't  go  kiting  round  there  alone  —  especially  when 
they  are  young  and  pretty  —  as  they  can  over  here 
(and  particularly,  as  I  will  and  must  always  say,  in 
Brooklyn !),  and  he  must  have  some  natural  feeling 
for  the  poor  child.  Leastways  he  knows  that  she  is 
the  best  card  in  his  hand. 

u  Will  you  listen  to  me  using  gambling  talk  in  my 
old  age  when  I  don't  know  queens  from  spades,  nor 
hearts  from  jacks  ?  It  must  be  the  talking  and  think 
ing  so  much  about  a  man  who 's  made  his  living  that 
way.  There 's  more  things  that 's  catching  than 
measles  and  cholera.  You  '11  let  me  know  if  you  've 
any  further  news  of  them  all  ?  They  are  in  my  mind 
and  prayers  all  the  time  I  'm  awake." 

She  had  run  in  for  an  hour  that  evening  expressly 
to  inquire  as  to  the  case  of  her  Pinehurst  friends, 
and  she  carried  them  upon  her  great  heart  in  her 
homeward  walk.  The  weather  was  much  colder  than 
when  she  went  into  her  pastor's  house.  The  salt 
yellow  fogs  were  rolling  seaward  before  a  brisk 
nor'wester;  the  stars  blinked  frostily  overhead. 

"  March  will  die  like  a  roaring  lion  !  "  soliloquized 
the  good  soul,  "  stepping  out "  at  a  rate  of  speed  dis- 
porportioned  to  her  years  and  weight.  "  His  teeth 
are  sharp  too !  " 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  349 

The  nor'wester  was  a  young  gale  when  she  faced 
it,  bullying  all  weaker  things  after  the  manner  of 
March  winds,  capricious,  and  no  respecter  of  persons. 
Substantial  as  was  her  build,  she  had  to  duck  her 
head,  and  shoulder  the  blast  sidelong  in  crossing  the 
streets.  Thus  advancing,  she  brought  herself  into 
contact  with  a  stout  man  at  the  junction  of  the 
Avenue  with  Post  Street.  Both  staggered,  and  he 
seized  her  arm  to  save  her  from  falling,  with  — 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  madam  !  " 

"  If  it  ain't  Mr.  Stevens ! "  cried  she,  with  what 
breath  the  gale  and  shock  had  spared  to  her. 

The  home  missionary  laughed,  —  a  right  round, 
jovial  laugh  that  must  have  come  all  the  way  from 
his  heels. 

"  This  is  one  of  the  things  people  who  know  no 
better  call 4  wonderful ! '  "  he  said  jollily.  "  Such  things 
as  are  all  the  time  happening  to  me  —  and  to  anybody 
who  is  on  the  lookout  for  them.  I  am  on  my  way  to 
your  house.  Just  got  off  the  car  at  the  corner 
below." 

"  King's  business  ?  " 

"  That 's  as  you  look  at  it.     Busy  ?  " 

u  Just  home  from  a  bilious-remittent  yesterday, 
and  pretty  well  rested  out  last  night.  Why  !  what 's 
this?" 

Mr.  Stevens  said  "  Halloo  !  "  and  both  halted  at 
the  bottom  of  the  steps  leading  up  to  the  sign  of 
"  Mary  Williams,  Nurse,  <fcc."  A  man  crouched  there, 
doubled  up  until  his  forehead  rested  on  his  knees, 
not  —  as  the  practised  eye  of  the  two  spectators  at 
once  discerned  —  in  the  limp  attitude  of  the  drunkard, 


350  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

but  tense  with  physical  anguish.  Mr.  Stevens  took 
him  gently  by  the  shoulder.  He  moaned,  arid  tried 
to  raise  himself.  The  light  of  the  street-lamp  showed 
a  face  like  chalk,  made  keen  and  old  by  extremity 
of  pain. 

"  Aha !  "  escaped  the  missionary. 

He  let  go  of  the  shoulder,  and  beckoned  the  nurse 
a  few  steps  apart. 

"  I  've  seen  tins  man  before  to-day.  He  swore  at 
me  then.  That  brings  him  fairly  within  the  category 
of  '  them  that  curse  and  despitefully  use  you.'  So 
my  duty  is  to  bless  him.  Can  you  take  him  in  for  an 
hour  or  so  ?  He  has  a  convulsion  of  some  sort,  and 
ought  to  be  attended  to  at  once." 

"  I  '11  see  if  the  men-folks  downstairs  are  at  home. 
They  can  help  you  up  to  my  sitting-room  with  him," 
mounting  the  steps  hastily. 

The  u  men-folks,"  a  father  and  grown  son,  will 
ingly  lent  a  hand  in  the  charitable  deed.  Whatever 
Mrs.  Williams  ordained  respecting  sick  people  was 
law  and  gospel  to  them.  The  three  men  got  the 
groaning  and  almost  unconscious  sufferer  up  to  the 
second  floor,  and  laid  him  upon  the  lounge  under  the 
illustrated  poem,  Mrs.  Williams's  pride.  At  her  next 
behest  the  son  ran  off  for  Dr.  Bacon. 

"  It 's  angina  pectoris  ! "  said  Mr.  Stevens,  presently, 
watching  the  fierce  spasms. 

"  We  used  to  call  it  '  breast-pang,' "  said  the  nurse, 
in  the  same  guarded  key.  u  There 's  few  worse  things 
that  the  human  body  can  endure.  He  's  been  drink 
ing  hard  too.  Maybe  to  try  to  quiet  the  pain,  poor  fel 
low  !  I  've  known  people  to  mistake  it  for  cramp  in  the 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  351 

stomach  in  the  first  stages.  He  looks  like  a  gentle 
man." 

The  missionary  nodded,  his  grave,  pitying  regards 
upon  the  convulsed  features.  Used  as  he  was  to  wit 
nessing  every  form  of  suffering,  he  appreciated  that 
this  was  an  extraordinary  case,  and  that  the  peril  was 
imminent.  Hot  fomentations  were  applied  to  his 
chest,  and  hot  water-bags  to  his  feet,  without  mitiga 
tion  of  the  symptoms.  It  was  a  tedious  half-hour 
that  rolled  by  before  the  bustle  of  the  physician's 
arrival  was  heard  upon  the  stairs.  For  the  next  hour 
little  was  said  in  the  room  besides  the  quick,  authori 
tative  directions  of  the  chief  in  command,  and  the 
queries  of  the  subordinates. 

In  that  time  medicines  were  brought  in  ;  a  folding- 
bed  was  lowered  and  made  up,  the  sufferer  undressed 
and  laid  within  it,  apparently  unconscious  of  every 
thing  except  the  intolerable  torture  of  his  mysterious 
malady.  It  was  twelve  o'clock  when  his  groans 
ceased,  and  he  lay  in  the  stupor  induced  by  anodynes 
and  exhaustion. 

Dr.  Bacon  picked  up  the  coat  he  had  taken  off  the 
better  to  handle  the  writhing  man,  and  whistled. 

"  By  Jap !  that  was  a  near  thing.  I  thought  he 
was  off  a  dozen  times.  Who  and  what  is  he  ?  and 
how  came  you  two  in  charge  of  this  private  hospital  ?  " 

"  He  was  taken  upon  my  steps,"  said  Mrs.  Williams. 

"  And  you  took  him  in.  You  may  be  thankful  if 
he  does  n't  turn  the  tables.  Such  impulsive  charity 
is  pious,  but  poor  policy,  so  far  as  the  life  that  now 
is  goes.  What  do  you  know  of  our  patient,  Mr. 
Stevens  ? " 


352  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"  He  is  a  traveller  on  the  Jericho  road,  and  my 
neighbor.  The  priest  and  the  Levite  had  probably 
had  their  look  and  their  say  about  him,  but  they  were 
out  of  sight  before  we  came  up." 

The  doctor's  eyes  twinkled  with  merry  malice. 

"  S-o-o  !  a  pair  of  good  Samaritans,  eh  ?  The  sacred 
drama  is  likely  to  cost  you  more  than  a  pocketful  of 
tuppences,  and  more  time  than  you  calculated  upon. 
He  can't  be  moved  to-night,  or  to-morrow,  without 
endangering  his  life,  —  which  is  n't  worth  taking  odds 
upon,  in  any  event.  You  've  got  a  white  elephant  on 
your  hands,  my  good  sister.  My  advice  (unprofes 
sional)  is  that  you  examine  his  clothing  for  some  clew 
to  his  identity.  If  he  has  friends,  they  ought  to  be 
informed  as  to  what  has  happened." 

The  search  was  futile.  Not  a  letter,  or  so  much  as 
a  handkerchief,  was  in  the  pockets,  and  none  of  the 
garments  were  marked. 

The  doctor  whistled  again. 

"  That  saying  about  the  Jericho  road  was  n't  amiss. 
Our  uncertain  man  has  certainly  fallen  among  thieves, 
and  thieves  without  honor  at  that." 

The  smile  he  turned  upon  the  hostess  was  a  broad 
grin  of  mischievous  satisfaction. 

"  Here 's  a  station  on  the  Royal  Road  for  you  !  Not 
having  taken  a  ticket  on  that  line  myself,  I  humbly 
propose  that  you  bundle  him  out  of  this  to  the  hos 
pital  the  minute  I  can  say  with  any  degree  of  truth 
fulness  that  he  is  n't  likely  to  die  on  the  way.  If  he 
dies  here,  there  will  be  a  newspaper  inquest,  and 
there  's  no  telling  what  amount  of  talk  and  fuss." 

"  That 's  for  to-morrow  to  decide,  —  not  you,  nor 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  353 

yet  me;"  rejoined  the  nurse,  composedly.  "  But  this 
much  I  do  say,  —  until  it 's  safe  to  move  him,  here  he 
stays  !  A  human  life  is  a  human  life,  and  I  have  n't 
lived  to  be  fifty-seven  years  old  to  be  scared  by  news 
paper  powder.  They  are  mostly  blank  cartridges." 

"  Oh,  I  know  you  of  old !  No  matter  whom  you 
are  dealing  with,  you  always  write  yourself  down  as 
4  No.  2.'  See  here,  my  friend,  —  for  I  am  your  friend, 
whether  you  are  foolish  or  sensible,  —  this  man  is  not 
one  of  your  kind.  There  is  n't  a  sign  of  the  disciple 
about  him.  We  doctors  see  enough  of  the  side  of  life 
the  knots  are  on,  to  make  us  keen  in  these  matters. 
He  's  a  genteel  '  tough  '  -  -  that 's  what  he  is  —  and 
just  off  of  a  hard  '  tear.'  Don't  set  your  heart  upon 
nursing  him  into  a  sheep.  He  's  an  out-and-out  goat. 
I  don't  say  you  're  to  put  him  into  the  street  to-night, 
but  I  '11  look  in  to-morrow  with  a  hospital  permit  in 
my  pocket,  and  an  elastic  conscience  in  my  manly 
bosom. 

"Did  you  ever  behold  a  more  obstinate  counte 
nance  in  your  born  days  ?  "  pointing  to  Mrs.  Williams, 
who  was  quietly  setting  the  disordered  room  into  its 
accustomed  condition.  "  She  's  a  respectable  woman, 
with  a  professional  reputation  to  maintain,  and  it 
really  won't  do  for  her  to  be  housing  stragglers  in 
this  promiscuous  manner.  She  ought,  in  the  first 
place,  to  have  sent  off  post-haste  for  an  ambulance 
and  shipped  him  to  the  hospital." 

"  Or  station-house,"  put  in  Mr  Stevens,  smiling 
quietly.  "  There  were  probably  none  on  the  turnpike 
to  Jericho,  or  the  priest  and  Levitc  would  have 
thought  of  one.  The  Royal  Road  I  heard  you  speak 

23 


354  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

of  just  now  is  lined  with  Houses  of  Mercy  and  Ready 
Reliefs,  and  so  on.  That  comes  of  living  in  the  nine 
teenth  century,  I  suppose." 

The  doctor  was  not  disconcerted. 

"As  to  charity,  real  charity,  I  believe  in  it  as 
truly  as  any  man.  But  these  works  of  supererogation 
are  outside  of  my  province  —  and  comprehension.  I 
dare  affirm  —  for  I  know  you  and  respect  your  prin 
ciples  —  that  five  out  of  every  ten  cases  of  so-called 
distress  you  relieve,  prove,  when  you  come  to  look 
into  them,  to  have  been  frauds,  or,  at  least,  exag 
gerated  for  the  purpose  of  working  up  your  sympa 
thies  to  the  alms-point.  There  is  a  continual  pull 
upon  your  nervous  forces  and  purse-strings,  and  for 
what  ?  To  further  pauperize  paupers,  to  instruct 
designing  scamps  in  hypocrisy  and  cunning,  and 
deplete  good  men's  pockets.  Am  I  right  ? " 

"  Better  that  ninety-nine  guilty  men  go  free  than 
that  one  innocent  man  should  be  punished,"  quoted 
Mr.  Stevens.  "  My  conscience  is  easier  for  not  taking 
the  chance  against  the  innocent  one.  As  to  the  un 
worthy  whom  I  feed  and  clothe,  believing  that  I  am 
obeying  the  Master's  precept  to  provide  for  the  des 
titute,  —  what  follows  the  action  performed  in  this 
spirit  is  none  of  my  business.  It  is  done  unto  God, 
not  unto  man." 

Dr.  Bacon  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  spread  out 
his  hands. 

"  And  it  is  none  of  my  business,  you  might  say,  to 
dictate  to  whom  you  are  to  give  and  when  and  how. 
Only,  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  I  am  sincerely  interested 
in  our  excellent  Mrs.  Williams,  and  I  don't  fancy  the 
contract  she  has  on  her  hands  just  now." 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  355 

He  moved  toward  the  bed.  The  conversation  had 
been  held  in  the  sub-tones  trained  nurses  understand 
(or  ought  to  understand)  how  to  use,  audible  only  to 
the  interlocutor  and  free  from  the  sibilations  that 
arouse  a  sleeper  more  readily  than  a  loud  call. 

The  man  lay  like  one  dead,  but  for  his  low,  labored 
respiration,  —  the  ground  swell  after  the  storm.  His 
face  was  livid,  the  cheeks  had  fallen  in ;  his  jaw  hung 
loosely. 

"Send  for  me  should  the  pain  return,"  said  the 
doctor,  in  leaving  his  side.  "  Should  you  find  him 
sinking,  don't  call  me  up.  It  would  be  over  before  I 
could  get  here.  It  is  touch-and-go  with  him  for  the 
next  few  hours." 

Mr.  Stevens  took  his  departure  half  an  hour  later. 
He  had  left  a  sick  man  in  New  York  to  whom  he 
had  meant  to  send  Mrs.  Williams.  He  must  secure 
another  nurse  before  he  could  go  to  his  own  home. 

"  I  will  look  in  upon  you  to-morrow  forenoon,"  was 
his  parting  promise.  "  Keep  up  a  brave  heart,  my  sis 
ter  —  and  may  the  Sleepless  Eye  watch  with  you  !  " 

He  had  made  his  call,  and  Dr.  Bacon  his,  before 
the  patient  gave  any  sign  that  he  knew  where  he  was 
—  or  indeed  that  he  was  at  all.  It  was  then  the  recur 
rence  of  the  horrible  grip  upon  his  chest  that  aroused 
him  from  the  protracted  stupor.  The  paroxysm  was 
slighter  and  briefer  than  the  former,  and  when  it  was 
relieved,  he  moved  and  spoke  with  comparative  ease. 
Another  long  night  of  lethargic  slumber  succeeded, 
and  the  Sabbath  day  dawned  brightly. 

"Treacherous, but  delicious," Dr.  Bacon  pronounced 
the  weather.  "  Nice,  while  it  lasts,  and  profitable  to 


356  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

the  profession  when  it  is  over.  I  wish  you  could  get 
a  mouthful  of  the  outer  air  before  the  storm  it  is 
breeding  comes." 

For  answer,  she  looked  at  him  across  the  stranger's 
pillow. 

"  Oh,  I  suppose  so !  "  he  retorted  crossly.  "  I  feel 
like  shaking  you,  all  the  same  !  " 

The  patient  seemed  unobservant  of  the  by-play, 
although  he  was  rational  and  fully  awake,  replying 
coherently  and  in  well-chosen  terms  to  the  physi 
cian's  questions  as  to  his  physical  condition.  He 
suffered  little  actual  pain,  he  said,  but  there  were 
moments  of  distressing  prostration  when  his  heart 
stopped  beating  for  a  moment,  and  resumed  action  with 
difficulty.  He  supposed  that,  with  returning  strength, 
this  sensation  would  pass  away.  He  thanked  the 
doctor  for  his  kindly  attentions,  and  complimented 
him,  briefly  but  courteously,  upon  his  skill. 

"  I  was  more  dangerously  ill  from  the  same  cause 
in  February.  I  am  not  alarmed  as  to  the  final 
result." 

After  the  doctor  had  gone,  Mrs.  Williams  was 
slightly  confused  by  the  unexpected  query :  "  Why 
did  he  want  to  shake  you  ? " 

"  Pshaw !  you  must  n't  mind  Dr.  Bacon's  non 
sense.  He  and  I  have  worked  together  so  many  years 
that  he  says  pretty  much  whatever  comes  into  his 
head.  Will  you  take  your  broth  now  ?  " 

He  complied,  said  "  Thank  you  !  "  as  she  laid  his 
head  again  on  the  pillow,  and  was  so  still  she  would 
have  believed  him  drowsy,  but  for  the  wide  gaze  of 
the  eyes  straight  forward  into  vacancy. 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  357 

"  You  and  Dr.  Bacon  consider  me  extremely  ill, 
do  you  not  ?  "  he  asked,  at  length,  without  apparent 
emotion.  u  You  may  be  nearer  right  than  I." 

"  Nobody  can  suffer  as  you  do,  without  becoming 
seriously  ill,  sir.  There 's  always  more  or  less  danger 
in  such  attacks.  I  am  very  thankful  to  see  you  so 
much  easier." 

"  You  do  not  say  4  better,'  I  observe !  Why  are 
you  taking  care  of  me  ?  " 

"  You  fell  ill  at  my  door  at  ten  o'clock  at  night. 
What  could  a  Christian  woman  do  but  see  that  you 
did  not  die  there  ?  Then,  too,  I  am  a  professional 
nurse,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a  providence  in  it." 

In  the  next  interval  of  silence  between  them,  the 
church-bell  began  to  chime  for  the  morning  service ; 
that  of  the  Jeremy  Taylor  Memorial  sonorous  and 
clear,  because  close  at  hand.  Mrs.  Williams's  head 
was  reverently  inclined  as  the  final  toll  sounded  the 
call  to  worship  in  the  sanctuary  of  her  love  ;  believ 
ing  herself  unnoticed  by  her  lodger,  she  folded  her 
hands  and  joined  in  spirit  in  the  invocation  which  she 
knew  was  said  at  that  minute  over  the  congregation 
bowed  in  prayer. 

"  It  is  Sunday,  is  it  not  ?  "  came  from  her  com 
panion  presently. 

"  Yes,  and  a  beautiful  Sabbath,  sir.  I  'm  always 
grateful  for  a  lovely  Lord's  Day." 

"  You  were  praying  just  now.  Did  you  pray  for 
me?" 

"  Yes.  I  have  been  praying  constantly  for  you  all 
the  morning  —  and  yesterday  —  and  night  before." 

"Thank  you!" 


358  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

The  weak  voice  she  could  have  fancied  was  weaker 
every  time  she  listened  to  it,  spoke  again  after  a  long 
pause. 

"  Are  you  not  in  the  habit  of  reading  your  Bible  on 
Sundays  when  you  do  not  go  to  church  ?  " 

"  Always."  She  arose  with  alacrity,  and  took  the 
well-worn  Book  from  its  cushioned  stand.  "  If  you 
don't  mind  I  should  like  to  look  over  a  Psalm, 
or  a  bit  of  the  Gospels.  They  hearten  a  body  up 
amazingly." 

He  waited  until  she  settled  her  eye-glasses  and 
opened  her  Bible. 

"  Would  it  weary  you  to  read  a  few  verses  aloud  ? " 

"Not  at  all."  She  would  not  display  too  much 
eagerness  lest  he  should  shrink  back  into  the  shell 
of  polite  reserve.  "  Have  you  any  choice,  sir  ? " 

The  answer  was  not  prompt,  and  was  enunciated 
lingeringly,  indescribable  pathos  in  the  last  inflec 
tions  :  — 

"  If  you  please  —  the  story  of  the  thief  on  the 
Cross !  " 

He  lay  perfectly  still  while  the  pleasant  voice, 
solemn  with  the  weight  of  pious  awe,  rendered  the 
tale :  - 

"  And  when  they  came  unto  the  place  which  is  called 
The  skull,  there  they  crucified  Him,  and  the  malefac 
tors,  one  on  the  right  hand  and  the  other  on  the  left. 

"  And  Jesus  said,  '  Father,  forgive  them  ;  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do?  And  parting  His  garments 
among  them,  they  cast  lots. 

"  And  the  people  stood  beholding.  And  the  rulers 
also  scoffed  at  Him,  saying,  '  He  saved  others ;  let 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  359 

Him  save  Himself,  if  this  is  the  Christ  of  Crod,  His 
chosen.9 

"  And  the  soldiers  also  mocked  Him,  coming  to  Him, 
offering  Him  vinegar,  and  saying,  '  If  Thou  art  the 
King  of  the  Jews,  save  Thyself!' 

"  And  there  was  also  a  superscription  over  Him, 
'  This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews' 

"  And  one  of  the  malefactors  which  were  hanged 
railed  on  Him,  saying,  '  Art  not  Thou  the  Christ  f 
save  Thyself  and  us.' 

"  But  the  other  answered,  and  rebuking  him  said, 
4  Dost  thou  not  even  fear  Crod,  seeing  thou  art  in  the 
same  condemnation?  And  we  indeed  justly  ;  for  we 
receive  the  due  reward  of  our  deeds  :  but  this  man  hath 
done  nothing  amiss.' 

"  And  he  said,  '  Jesus !  remember  me  when  Thou 
comest  into  Thy  kingdom' 

"  And  He  said  unto  him,  '  Verily  I  say  unto  thee, 
To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise' ''' 

The  reverent  accents  ceased,  and  there  was  a  still 
ness  that  might  be  felt.  The  sunken  eyes  appeared 
to  gaze  upon  a  pencil  of  sunshine  slipping  stealthily 
along  the  wall;  the  lips  murmured  no  thanks;  Mrs. 
Williams  crossed  the  room  with  her  soundless  step 
to  lay  the  Bible  upon  its  pillow. 

"  I  remember, "  she  said  softly,  to  herself  as  much 
as  to  the  possible  auditor,  "  hearing  an  old  preacher 
say  once  that  '  we  had  one  such  story  given  to  us  in 
God's  Word,  that  none  might  despair,  and  only  one, 
that  none  might  presume. '  You  may  have  heard 
too,  sir,  of  John  Wesley's  answer  to  the  lady  who 
told  him  that  there  was  no  hope  of  her  salvation; 


360  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

she  felt  herself  to  be  a  lost  sinner.  '  I  am  glad  of 
that,  madam, '  says  Mr.  Wesley,  '  very  glad  of  it. ' 
4  How  can  you  say  so  ?  '  says  she,  quite  horrified. 
6  Because  I  read  in  my  Bible  that  Christ  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost. '  That  anecdote 
has  been  a  comfort  to  many  a  poor  soul,  I  don't 
doubt.  It  has  helped  me  more  than  once,  I  know, 
when  I  got  down  in  my  mind." 

He  shifted  his  position  to  bring  her  within  eye- 
range. 

"  Do  you  believe,  then  —  Where  did  you  get  that 
picture  ?  " 

A  fine  cabinet  photograph  of  Mrs.  Paull  stood 
upon  a  miniature  easel  on  the  low  mantel-shelf,  a 
second  and  broader  sun-ray  lying  athwart  it. 

As  the  nurse  afterward  related  the  incident,  a 
light  as  bright  broke  in  upon  her  mind ;  her  heart 
beat  suffocatingly;  odd  zigzags  of  flame  hindered 
her  vision.  Professional  caution  and  tact  did  not 
fail  her,  however. 

"There,  now!"  in  her  creamiest  legato;  "I  don't 
wonder  it  catches  your  eye.  That 's  a  lovely  lady  I 
nursed  through  brain  fever  a  little  over  two  years 
ago.  She 's  had  lots  of  trouble  and  sorrow,  — 
enough  to  kill  most  women,  but  she  has  been  won 
derfully  supported  through  it  all.  1  set  a  deal  of 
store  by  her,  and  she  knows  that  so  well,  she  gave 
me  her  picture  last  Christmas.  Maybe  you  'd  like 
to  look  at  it  nearer,  sir  ?  " 

He  snatched  rather  than  accepted  it  from  her, 
grasped  it  with  both  shaking  hands,  his  eyes  kind 
ling  hungrily.  Eyes  and  fingers  seemed  as  if  they 
would  never  let  it  go. 


THE  ROYAL  ROAD.  361 

"  Excuse  me  for  a  minute,  please  ! "  said  Mrs. 
Williams,  the  "&c.,"  in  entire  command  of  speech 
and  action.  "  I  must  see  how  that  beef-tea  is  get 
ting  on  in  the  kitchen. " 

When  out  of  his  sight  she  fell  upon  her  knees :  — 

"Dear  Lord  !  give  me  light  enough  for  the  next 
step  !  Thou,  who  canst  save  to  the  uttermost,  have 
mercy  upon  this  wandering  soul !  " 

A  strange,  choking  cry  —  a  horrid  rattling  sound 
—  made  her  fly  into  the  outer  room.  Ernest  Paull 
had  raised  himself  upon  his  elbow ;  his  right  hand 
plucked  convulsively  at  his  breast;  his  eyes,  wild 
and  imploring,  besought  help  which  mortal  skill 
could  not  render. 

The  struggle  was  fearfully  brief.  Even  as  she 
raised  him  in  her  arms  that  air  might  enter  the 
closing  lungs,  his  frame  relaxed ;  with  one  last  effort 
he  lifted  his  wife's  picture  to  his  lips,  and  the  life 
fluttered  forth. 


CHAPTER   XX. 


What  could  I  do,  0  blessed  Guide  and  Master, 

Other  than  this  ? 
Still  to  go  on,  as  now,  not  slower,  faster, 

Nor  fear  to  miss 
The  road,  although  so  very  long  it  be, 

While  led  by  Thee. 
Step  after  step,  feeling  Thee  close  beside  me, 

Although  unseen ; 

Through  thorns,  through  flowers,  whether  the  tempest 
hide  Thee, 

Or  heavens  serene,  — 
Assured  Thy  faithfulness  cannot  betray, 

Nor  love  decay. 

SUSAN  COOLIDGE. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

months  after  Ernest  Paull's  death, 
his  widow  and  eldest  son  drove  one  moonlight 
evening  down  to  the  village  post-office  for  the  late 
mail.  There  were  two  mails  a  day  in  Pequod  now, 
and  a  railroad  in  building  on  the  other  side  of  the 
lake  from  Pinehurst.  The  old  Dutch  neighborhood 
was  waking  up  to  the  appreciation  of  the  conse 
quence,  real  and  prospective,  of  a  mountain  retreat 
within  an  hour  by  rail  of  the  metropolis.  "The 
store  "  had  arisen  a  story  in  the  world,  and  had  a 
brand-new  coat  of  paint  that  glistened  under  the  full 
moon.  There  was  a  smarter  look  about  the  knot  of 
village  loafers  gathered  upon  the  porch  and  steps, 
some  smoking,  some  whittling. 

While  Mrs.  Paull  waited  in  the  buggy  for  her 
son's  return  from  the  interior  of  the  building,  she 
heard  them  talk  of  factory  work,  crops,  and  general 
rural  news.  They  were  neither  worse  nor  better 
than  the  average  of  men  and  lads  who  frequent  the 
country  store;  but,  as  the  idle  chit-chat  went  on,  the 
lady  was  disagreeably  impressed  by  the  bovine  drawl, 
the  slovenly  dialect,  and  low  range  of  ideas  of  men 
who  had  passed  their  lives  in  a  community  where 
church-going  was  respectable,  and  schooling  was,  by 
law,  obligatory.  She  had  striven  unostentatiously 


366  THE   ROYAL  ROAD. 

to  do  missionary  work  among  these  people,  recogniz 
ing,  at  the  outset,  what  many  as  earnest  never  per 
ceive,  and  thereby  fail  in  their  ministry  to  those 
they  would  lift  to  higher  levels;  to  wit,  that  the 
native-born  American,  no  matter  what  his  birth, 
station,  or  means,  is  never  a  peasant,  and  ignores 
resentfully  the  existence  of  such  a  class  on  this  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  She  had  discovered  other  things 
that  pained  and  surprised  her  far  more  than  the 
suspicious  spirit  of  independence  that,  if  rightly 
directed,  leads  to  the  right  sort  of  self-respect. 
The  tone  of  every-day  morality  among  the  "village 
people "  was  not  a  whit  higher  than  in  the  slum- 
miest  quarters  of  the  so-considered  wicked  city. 
The  men  and  boys,  with  lamentably  few  exceptions, 
drank  bad  liquor,  smoked  and  chewed  vile  tobacco, 
and  that  incessantly,  gamed  and  swore  freely.  The 
women  were  coarse  and  bold  in  their  demeanor,  and 
notoriously  lax  in  principle.  It  was  not  uncommon 
for  girls  of  thirteen  to  marry  boys  but  a  few  years 
older ;  wife-beating  was  a  frequent  occurrence,  and  a 
more  common  sight  was  husband  and  wife  drinking 
together,  while  their  children,  ragged,  barefoot,  and 
dirty,  learned  profanity  and  vice  in  the  public  roads. 
There  were  three  churches  in  sight  of  the  "  Cross 
road  store,"  and  pastors  and  Sunday-school  teachers 
who  sought  to  draw  in  learners  and  co-workers. 
The  common  people  stood  aloof  and  on  the  defensive. 
Aided  by  Marie  and  Mrs.  Morse,  Mrs.  Paull  had 
established  a  sewing  and  cooking  class  which  met 
twice  a  week  in  a  house  in  the  village.  Not  a 
woman  or  girl  would  have  walked  the  half-mile  to 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  367 

Pinehurst  to  bo  taught  anything.  The  attitude  — 
conscious  and  habitual  —  of  the  "native-born"  igno 
ramus  is  patronage  of  those  who  would  help  him  to 
rise.  Women  washed  and  scrubbed  for  their  better- 
to-do  neighbors  with  the  air  of  conferring  a  favor, 
receiving  payment  for  the  same  with  supercilious 
toleration  irresistibly  funny  to  those  who  had  too 
much  sense  to  let  it  irritate  them.  If  it  pleased 
Mrs.  Paull  to  teach  the  children  to  sew,  and  to  give 
them  the  aprons  and  frocks  they  made ;  to  invite  the 
wives  of  the  operatives  to  help  her  play  cook  two 
afternoons  in  the  week,  and  to  let  them  carry  home 
the  food  they  prepared,  —  they  let  her  have  her  way, 
some  good-humoredly,  some  contemptuously,  none 
gratefully.  The  same  state  of  feeling  prevailed 
with  respect  to  the  Bible  class  held  on  Wednesday 
night  in  the  new  "hall"  over  the  store.  When  they 
felt  like  it,  they  came ;  when  they  did  not  feel  like 
it,  they  stayed  away. 

The  field  was  not  encouraging.  She  had  con 
fessed  this  to  Lanier  on  the  drive  down :  — 

"  I  do  not  lose  heart,  simply  because  1  know  that 
I  owe  a  duty  to  my  neighbor,  and  that  I  am  trying 
to  fulfil  it  to  the  best  of  my  light  and  knowledge. 
It  is  the  *  duty  that  lies  nearest  my  hand. '  Hence 
it  is  God's  will  that  I  should  do  it.  As  Mr.  Stevens 
says,  what  comes  of  it  is  none  of  my  business. 
Each  of  us  is  a  soldier  in  the  ranks.  When  the 
Commander  says,  '  Come,'  or  '  Go,'  '  Do  this,'  or 
'  Do  that,'  we  have  no  choice  but  to  obey.  Human 
nature  in  Pequod  is  Water-Street  human  nature. 
The  rural  district  is  not  Arcadia,  but  it  is  good  for 


368  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

me  to  find  here  what  Byron  coveted  when  he  began 
the  study  of  German,  — '  something  craggy  to  break 
his  mind  upon.'  I  have  learned  long  ago,  that 
merely  sentimental  Christianity  cannot  labor  effec 
tively  in  a  severely  practical  world,  where  dirt  and 
poverty  go  hand-in-hand,  and  those  who  are  in  the 
direst  need  of  moral  and  spiritual  help  are  the  most 
averse  to  receiving  such  help. " 

"A  clear  case  of  i  I  will  be  drowned  !  Nobody 
shall  help  me  '  ?  " 

"  Exactly  !  Fortunately  there  is  One  who  sees  the 
end  from  the  beginning,  and  appoints  to  each  day 
its  '  tender  tasking. ' ' 

She  had  bowed  pleasantly  to  the  group  of  loungers 
when  the  buggy  drew  up  at  the  store,  and  Lanier 
had  lifted  his  hat.  The  men  nodded,  not  a  hand 
moving  to  the  brim  of  hat  or  cap.  Then  they  had 
gone  on  talking,  rather  more  loudly  than  before,  to 
prove  how  uncowed  they  were  by  a  refined  presence. 

Mrs.  Paull  comprehended  the  drift  of  all  this  by 
this  time,  and  did  not  feel  indignant  or  wounded  by 
behavior  that  would  have  offended  her  sense  of  fit 
ness  had  the  boorishness  manifested  itself  in  men  of 
a  different  stamp.  She  noted,  instead,  with  silent 
gratification,  that  not  an  oath  was  uttered  in  her 
hearing,  or  an  unclean  word.  The  mind,  free 
from  carking  preoccupation  in  the  morrow,  discerns 
and  gets  all  the  sweetness  out  of  such  grains  of 
comfort. 

The  end  of  the  upper  story,  inhabited  by  the  store 
keeper's  family,  was  lighted,  and  a  window  was  open 
in  one  room,  the  evening  being  bland.  Presently 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  369 

somebody  —  the  wife  or  daughter  of  the  proprietor 
—  began  to  play  upon  a  melodeon. 

She  did  not  play  even  mechanically  well,  tripping 
once  in  a  while  over  a  key,  and  hurrying  or  retarding 
the  time  according  to  a  system  of  her  own;  the 
instrument  wheezed  asthmatically  when  certain  keys 
were  pressed;  and  twice  in  one  tune,  which  was 
unfamiliar  to  the  performer,  the  wind  gave  out 
through  her  forgetfulness  of  the  duty  her  foot  owed 
to  the  pedal. 

But  when  a  woman's  and  a  man's  voice  arose  in 
a  hymn-tune,  the  hum  of  talk  upon  the  porch  ceased. 
Not  a  man  moved  while  the  sacred  song  went  on. 
It  was  taken,  of  course,  from  a  Moody  and  Sankey 
collection.  Nos.  1,  2,  and  3  of  "  Gospel  Hymns " 
are  to  be  found  in  every  farm  or  village  house,  as 
surely  as  churn  and  sewing-machine. 

In  the  windless  night  they  heard  every  word. 
The  heart  of  one  listener  was  a  harp,  with  each 
chord  tense  and  a-thrill  in  response  to  the  remem 
bered  strain :  — 

"  I  need  Thee  every  hour, 

Most  gracious  Lord  1 
No  tender  voice  like  Thine 
Can  peace  afford." 

Several  voices  among  the  lower  group  joined  in 
the  refrain  very  softly,  not  to  disturb  the  musicians 
above  stairs :  — 

"  I  need  Thee,  oh,  I  need  Thee ! 
Every  hour  1  need  Thee. 
Oh,  bless  me  now,  my  Saviour ! 
I  come  to  Thee !  " 

24 


370  THE  ROYAL  ROAD. 

It  was  the  "  cry  of  the  human"  of  every  degree. 

Lanier  was  in  his  seat  by  his  mother  while  the 
first  verse  was  in  singing.  He  did  not  touch  the 
reins  until  the  last  repetition  of  the  chorus  died 
away,  and  neither  of  the  two  spoke  before  the  top  of 
the  first  hill  was  reached.  The  road  skirted  the 
edge  of  the  lake,  which  was  full  from  the  autumnal 
rains.  The  head  of  water  pouring  over  the  dam 
raised  a  deep-toned  shout,  which  was  taken  up  by 
the  listening  hills.  Clouds  of  spray  were  rising 
from  the  rocks,  glittering  like  diamond-dust,  and 
beading  with  pearls  the  outermost  boughs  of  the 
hemlock  wood  on  the  other  side  of  the  rocky  way. 
Just  where  the  lake  gathered  itself  into  a  smooth 
sheet  for  the  plunge,  a  thicket  of  witch-hazel  was 
studded  with  numberless  blooms.  The  hills  dreamed 
upon  the  horizon ;  the  stars  pale,  but  constant,  held 
to  their  courses  in  the  gray-blue  canopy  of  a  world 
at  rest. 

"It  will  be  four  years  next  month  !"  Mrs.  Paull 
mused  aloud.  "That  hymn  brought  it  all  back  so 
vividly  that  for  a  moment  I  thought  I  could  not  bear 
it.  I  held  still,  and  the  pain  passed,  as  all  pains 
must  pass  by  His  grace. 

"My  boy  !  never  distrust  Him  !  Paul  meant 
much  when  he  told  his  neophytes  that  he  '  would 
have  them  without  carefulness.'  It  was  the  echo 
of  the  Master's  will." 

"  I  saw  something  to-day  that  made  me  wish  that 
you  were  with  me,"  answered  Lanier.  The  accord 
between  their  spirits  was  perfected  with  the  passing 
of  years.  "  Close  by  the  Peddlington  station,  right 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  371 

in  the  thick  of  wheels,  horses,  and  people,  within  six 
feet  of  the  rails  where  locomotives  were  drilling  up 
and  down,  were  two  sparrows  picking  up  scattered 
grain  that  had  fallen  from  freight  car  or  wagon. 
The  chippiest,  chirpiest  pair  of  busybodies  you  can 
imagine,  so  happy  over  their  4  find  '  that  they  chat 
tered  as  they  ate.  I  stood  still  for  fully  five  minutes 
to  watch  them.  It  was  a  sermon  in  song  and 
feathers.  The  roar  of  traffic  and  the  jargon  of 
voices  went  for  less  than  nothing  to  the  wise  midgets. 
God  had  put  their  dinner  —  such  a  big  dinner  !  —  just 
there,  and  they  took  it,  asking  no  questions." 

"The  dear  little  types  !"  smiled  the  mother,  ten 
derly.  "I  never  see  one  without  wishing  he  knew 
how  honored  he  is,  —  far  above  the  other  birds  of 
the  air.  How  careless  of  me  not  to  notice  that  you 
are  cumbered  with  all  these  letters  and  papers,  and 
have  to  hold  the  reins  besides  !  We  have  a  lordly 
mail  !  Let  me  take  it  ! " 

"The  heaviest,  and  it  goes  without  saying  the 
most  important,  part  is  for  Marie,  including  the 
usual  corpulent  envelope  from  Philadelphia.  The 
postal  service  of  Pequod  will  be  lighter  after  Novem 
ber  fifteenth.  I  am  to  be  best  man,  she  tells  me. 
You  must  advise  me  what  to  get  for  a  wedding- 
present.  Lanier  &  Co.  must  have  had  the  event  in 
view  when  they  raised  my  salary  the  first  of  the 
month.  You  will  miss  our  bonnie  girl." 

"More  than  I  could  have  believed  possible  two 
years  ago.  The  shock  that  awaited  her  upon  her 
return  from  what  we  all  considered  an  ill-starred 
voyage,  threw  her  back  into  her  mother's  arms,  and 


372  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

I  have  kept  her  there.  Her  friends  are  very  good  to 
her.  Her  Aunt  Virginia  has  given  her  all  her  linen, 
and  Mrs.  Barnes  is  embroidering  her  initials  upon 
each  piece,  '  stitching  love  into  every  letter, '  as  she 
says,  in  her  graceful  way.  I  shall  not  let  Mrs. 
Williams  leave  us  until  after  the  wedding.  I  shall 
convince  her  that  we  cannot  get  ready  for  it  without 
her  help.  That  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  she 
ought  to  have  the  change  and  rest." 

"  Has  she  been  ill  ?  I  was  actually  appalled  at 
the  alteration  in  her  when  I  met  her  at  the  station 
this  afternoon.  She  must  have  lost  fifty  pounds  of 
flesh  since  I  saw  her  in  July.  But  for  her  voice  and 
laugh  I  should  hardly  have  known  her.  I  asked  her 
through  what  mill  of  self-sacrifice  she  had  been  put 
ting  herself  lately. " 

Mrs.  Paull  uttered  an  exclamation  of  regret,  then 
checking  it  midway,  asked  with  interest,  — 

"  What  did  she  say  ?  " 

"  That  she  was  no  fonder  of  peas  in  her  shoes  and 
hair-cloth  shirts  than  other  folks.  For  her  part, 
she  thought  the  most  dangerous  part  of  spiritual 
vanity  was  that  people  felt  in  making  martyrs  of 
themselves.  '  It 's  a  great  honor  to  be  a  martyr 
when  God  calls  you  to  the  stake,  or  to  the  gallows, ' 
she  went  on  to  improve  the  occasion  by  remarking ; 
'  but  a  great  piece  of  presumption  when  one  grabs 
at  the  martyr's  crown  before  it  is  offered  to  him. 
Even  our  Lord  passed  through  the  midst  of  them 
that  wanted  to  throw  Him  off  the  hill  on  which 
Nazareth  was  built.  The  very  city  in  which  He  was 
brought  up,  too  ! '  What  a  Bible  scholar  she  is  ! " 


THE   ROYAL  ROAD.  373 

"  What  a  noble,  plucky  Christian  heroine  she  is  ! " 
said  Mrs.  Paull,  much  moved.  "No  martyr  ever 
went  to  the  torture  more  unflinchingly  than  she  has 
walked  the  cruel  stones  of  her  appointed  pathway 
of  life. 

"  Drive  slowly,  dear  !  I  must  tell  you  a  sad,  true 
story  before  we  reach  home.  You  should  hear  it, 
that  you  may  not  wound  our  dear  friend  by  thought 
less  questions.  She  would  never  allow  you  to  sus 
pect  it  if  she  did,  but  she  has  borne  so  much  that  we 
must  shield  her  in  every  possible  way.  Mrs.  Barnes 
told  me  the  sorrowful  tale  last  week  when  she  was 
here.  She  said  that  Mrs.  Williams  wished  me  to 
hear  it,  but  could  not  trust  herself  as  yet  to  talk 
of  it. 

"  She  was  married  at  twenty  to  a  smart  young 
fellow,  — a  machinist  by  trade,  and  in  a  good  busi 
ness.  Within  six  months  she  knew  that  he  was  a 
drunkard,  —  a  confirmed  sot.  He  had  loved  liquor 
ever  since  he  was  a  boy,  as  his  father  had  before 
him,  so  he  told  her.  On  her  death-bed  his  mother 
had  begged  him  to  promise  her  that  he  would  never 
touch  another  drop,  and  he  had  vowed  upon  her  Bible 
that  he  would  not.  This  was  a  year  before  his 
marriage,  and  before  he  met  Mary  Johnson,  who 
became  his  wife.  He  was  good-looking,  Mrs.  Barnes 
says,  with  a  kind  heart  and  sweet  temper,  one  of  the 
most  lovable  of  men  when  sober,  and  industrious 
and  ambitious.  A  few  glasses  of  the  accursed  stuff 
converted  him  into  a  demon,  quarrelsome,  violent, 
and  cruel.  His  wife  kept  the  knowledge  of  his 
besetting  sin  to  herself  as  long  as  she  could,  hoping 


374  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

with  all  the  strength  of  her  sanguine  nature  to  bring 
about  his  reform.  When  one  fall  after  another 
would  have  discouraged  any  other  woman,  she  clung 
to  the  belief  that  the  good  in  him  would  get  the 
upper  hand  of  the  evil. 

"  c  He  never  said  a  cross  word  to  me  when  he  was 
himself, '  she  told  Mrs.  Barnes ;  '  and  when  the  crazy 
fit  was  over,  he  was  fairly  broken-hearted  for  what 
had  happened.  Many  's  the  time  I  've  known  him 
spend  half  the  night  praying,  with  his  Bible  open 
before  him,  when  he  felt  the  terrible  thirst  coming 
on  him.  It  was  like  a  sly  devil  creeping  up  to  him, 
and  then,  all  at  once,  seizing  him  and  carrying  him 
off.  I  know  now  they  say  it  is  a  disease,  and  to  be 
treated  like  a  disease,  and  not  as  a  crime.  Maybe 
so,  but  I  call  it  being  possessed  by  devils,  —  some 
times  by  one,  sometimes  by  a  whole  legion  of  them, 
—  as  many  as  entered  into  the  swine.  It  makes 
swine  of  some  men;  it  made  a  wild  beast  of  my 
husband.  His  eyes  would  get  deeper  set  in  his 
head,  with  red  fire  burning  down  in  them,  his  fore 
head  was  lower  and  ridged  down  to  his  eyebrows, 
and  you  would  n't  have  known  the  voice  for  his,  that 
was  almost  like  a  woman's  for  gentleness  when  he 
was  right.' 

"Stop  here,  my  son  !  I  never  weary  of  that 
picture  set  in  the  opening  between  these  trees. " 

They  were  upon  the  upper  slope  of  the  hill  on 
which  the  homestead  was  built.  The  lights  from 
the  windows  twinkled  through  the  thinned  foliage ; 
below  the  house  and  lawn,  the  lake  spread,  an  irregu 
lar  sheet  of  silver-gray,  shading  into  black  where 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  375 

the  banks  were  high.  The  blasted  oak  to  which  the 
mother  had  compared  herself  formed  one  side  of  the 
view;  the  shadow  of  the  branchy  crown  projected 
upon  the  white  road.  The  air  was  fragrant  with  the 
odor  of  fallen  hickory  leaves,  and  pulsated  with  dis 
tant  music.  Marie  was  at  the  piano,  her  glorious 
voice  carrying  far  through  the  placid  night. 

"  It  is  not  the  time  or  the  place  for  a  tragic  story, " 
resumed  Mrs.  Paull.  "  We  will  get  it  over  quickly. 
They  had  been  married  several  years,  and  had  two 
children,  —  a  boy  and  a  girl.  Times  were  hard  with 
them,  in  consequence  of  the  husband's  habits,  and 
Mary  was  obliged  to  go  out  sewing  by  the  day  to 
help  support  the  family.  When  she  did  this,  her 
sister,  a  girl  of  eighteen,  used  to  stay  with  and  take 
care  of  the  children.  Williams  came  home  one 
noon,  while  his  wife  was  absent,  drunk  and  raving. 
It  is  supposed  that  his  sister-in-law,  who  was  spirited 
and  fearless,  reproached  him  with  his  condition; 
or  she  may  have  interfered  to  protect  the  little  ones 
from  their  father's  violence.  The  neighbors  heard 
her  scream,  and  ran  to  her  help,  —  too  late  to  save 
her.  He  had  killed  her  and  the  children  with  an 
axe,  and  was  raging  about  the  room,  cutting  up  the 
furniture  with  it. 

"We  read  of  similar  deeds  every  week,  but  the 
revolting  details  and  all  the  attendant  horrors  mean 
comparatively  nothing  to  us,  who  hear  of  them  afar 
off.  Think  of  this  happening  to  a  woman  like  our 
dear  Nurse  Williams,  —  a  clean-lived,  God-fearing 
wife  and  mother  !  " 

"  Mother  !  are  you  quite  sure  it  is  true  ?  " 


376  THE   ROYAL   ROAD. 

"Dr.  Barnes  was  her  pastor  then, as  now.  He  was 
sent  for  to  break  the  news  to  her.  She  fainted 
when  the  full  force  of  the  calamity  fell  upon  her. 
Her  first  inquiry  upon  reviving  was  for  her  husband. 

"  '  Drink  murdered  them,  not  he  ! '  she  said. 
'  When  he  comes  to  himself,  he  will  not  recollect 
anything  he  has  done.  He  must  be  watched,  or  he 
will  take  his  own  life  when  he  finds  it  out.  He  has 
the  lovingest  heart  ever  put  into  a  man's  bosom. ' 

"  The  thought  that  he  would  be  tried  for  the  triple 
murder  seemed  not  to  occur  to  her.  She  was  in  the 
court-room  when  he  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
for  life.  For  thirty  years  she  has  visited  him  regu 
larly,  once  a  month,  and  written  to  him  whenever 
she  was  allowed  to  send  a  letter.  He  died  a  fort 
night  ago.  By  the  favor  of  the  penitentiary  officials, 
who  were  acquainted  with  his  history,  she  was  ap 
pointed  his  nurse  in  the  prison  hospital,  and  had 
been  with  him  for  a  month  when  the  end  came. 

"  When  Mrs.  Barnes  wrote  to  me  how  sadly  shaken 
the  noble  woman  was,  I  insisted  that  she  should  pay 
us  a  visit,  writing  directly  to  Mrs.  Williams.  Her 
presence  ought  to  bring  a  blessing  to  any  house.  I 
covet  the  privilege  of  helping  to  mete  out  to  her  the 
measure  she  has  given  into  other  bosoms. 

"Not  a  word  of  this  to  Marie,  or  .to  the  children  ! 
I  knew  I  could  count  upon  your  sympathy  and  co 
operation.  " 

They  drove  slowly  and  silently  through  the  gate 
and  wood  and  around  to  the  front  door.  Marie  had 
left  the  piano,  and  was  watching  for  them  —  and 
the  mail  —  upon  the  porch.  A  glance  in  at  the 


THE   ROYAL   ROAD.  377 

kitchen  window  showed  Tom  and  Edwin  measuring 
the  chestnuts  gathered  that  day  into  a  great  basket, 
under  Elspeth's  approving  inspection,  and  the  mother 
passed  through  sitting-room  and  hall  to  her  own 
chamber.  The  sound  of  voices  met  her  on  the  thresh 
old.  The  door  was  not  fast  and  she  pushed  it 
aside  noiselessly. 

Mrs.  Williams  sat  by  the  fire  with  Gladys  —  a 
slight  weight  for  her  years  —  in  her  arms.  The 
child  was  wrapped  in  a  dressing-gown;  the  golden 
head  rested  confidingly  upon  her  friend's  shoulder. 

"There  's  one  more  verse,"  she  pleaded.  "I  used 
to  think  it  the  nicest  of  all.  Don't  you  remember, 
when  I  was  a  wee  bit  of  a  girl,  I  was  never  satisfied 
if  you  did  not  sing  it  clear  through?  You  can't 
cheat  me  now,  dear  old  nursie  ! " 

With   her  cheek  —  less    plump  and  rosy  than  in 
the   times    of  which   her   favorite    reminded   her- 
nestled   among   the   flossy  curls,  the   shining   of   a 
great   peace   in    her    eyes,    the   nurse   finished   her 
song: — 

"  It  may  be  the  sweet  surrounding 

Of  Thine  angels'  banding  wings 
May  define  fair  meads,  abounding 

In  the  dew  from  Baca's  springs. 
If,  instead  of  beauty,  burning 

Be  the  measure  of  Thy  will, 
May  eyes,  made  by  faith  discerning, 

See  the  shining  ones  there  still." 


FINIS. 


WHOLESOME   READING. 

HOW  THEY  KEPT  THE  FAITH.  A  Tale  of  the  Huguenots 
of  Languedoc.  By  GRACE  RAYMOND.  i2mo,  cloth. 
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"  We  have  rarely  met  with  an  attempt  to  reproduce  a  past  epoch,  so 
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action,  as  this  tale  as  to  how  the  Huguenots  kept  the  faith  in  the  time 
of  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Dragonnades.  The  story  is  wrought  out  skil 
fully  and  naturally,  the  different  characters  stand  out  boldly  on  the  can 
vas,  the  adherents  of  the  Reformed  faith,  from  principles  of  honor 
and  heredity,  are  well  contrasted  with  those  whose  attachment  rested 
on  conviction  and  conscience,  and  it  is  made  plain  that  only  a  living 
faith  in  Christ,  a  power  stronger  than  man's,  could  hold  one  steadfast 
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"  It  must  needs  be  that  the  story  should  abound  in  scenes  which  stir 
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life— which  raises  it  much  above  the  average  novel  or  historical  study, 
and  bespeaks  literary  skill  of  a  very  high  order.  The  novel  ought  to  at 
tain  a  wide  popularity  and  increase  the  growing  reputation  of  the 
gifted  author." 

LEAH  OF  JERUSALEM,  A  Story  of  the  Time  of  Paul.  By 
EDWARD  PAYSON  BERRY.  12010,  388  pages. 
Cloth.  $1.25. 

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boyhood  of  St.  Paul,  which  is  described  in  a  brief  chapter.  The  second 
chapter  introduces  the  heroine,  Leah,  at  a  date  some  twenty  years  later, 
who  is  cured  of  a  fever  by  St.  Stephen.  The  first  martyrdom  quickly 
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the  narrative.  It  is  a  sweet,  pure,  and  strong  story,  which  will  do 
much  in  the  way  of  quickening  religious  feeling  in  all  who  read  it." 
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AN  OLD  CHRONICLE  OF  LEIGHTON.   By  SARAH  S.  HAMER. 

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her  old  friends  and  acquaintances  is  adopted  into  their  circle  and 
becomes  a  part  of  their  life.  How  bright  and  winsome  a  part  she 
plays  is  well  told,  and  the  sentiment  that  appears  is  of  a  pleasing  and 
wholesome  sort." — The  Standard. 

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panion  of  her  father,  a  philanthropist  of  no  little  note,  who  spent  his 
life  and  gave  it  for  the  rescue  of  several  small  children  from  their  brutal 
father,  and  thereby  he  received  his  death-blow.  Godiva,  stunned  by 
the  loss  of  her  father  and  companion,  and  alone  in  the  world,  save 
an  uncle  and  three  cousins,  to  whose  care  her  father  committed  her. 
Sad  and  lonely  were  the  days  this  lovely  character  spent  in  uncon 
genial  surroundings,  stung  by  the  taunts  of  her  jealous  cousins  ;  she 
was  thrown  upon  her  own  resources,  until  an  accident  occurred  to  one 
of  the  cousins  which  nearly  sapped  her  life  ;  then  it  was  that  Godiva 
became  all  in  all  to  every  member  of  the  family.  For  years  he;1 
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women  in  our  colleges  and  elsewhere  who  honestly  doubt  the  Divine 
authority  of  the  Bible,  and  who  would  gladly  welcome  the  truth  if  they 
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fluence  into  the  hot  and  hurried  life  of  this  nineteenth  century.  It 
opens  up  a  field  new  to  most  readers,  and  everybody  will  find  it  pleas 
ant." — Churchman. 

"  The  book,  besides  being  a  charming  story,  is  a  valuable  review  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  period." — Christian  Union. 

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of  Nethermuir  make  genre  pictures  of  uncommon  merit,  and  one  is 
not  likely  to  straightway  forget  the  household  at  the  manse,  or  the 
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pages.    $1.00. 

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pages.  Enlarged  edition.  Sl.oo. 

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onward  through  present  self-denial  to  the  highest  usefulness,  peace,  and 


New  York  :  ANSON  D,  F,  KANDOLPH  00.  (Incorporated), 

182    FIFTH    AVENUE. 


A   GIRL'S   WINTER    IN    INDIA 

By  MARY  THORNE  CARPENTER. 
12  Full-page  illustrations.     i2mo,  ornamental  cloth.     $1.50. 


A  GRAPHIC  book  by  an  American  girl  who  spent  last  winter  in  India  and 
Ceylon,  and  had  the  entree  to  the  Viceroy's  entertainments  and  the  Indian 
Zenanas.  Her  descriptions  of  the  country  and  objects  of  unusual  interest,  as  well 
as  of  life  and  character,  cover  a  rather  unusual  range  of  observation,  preceded  by 
a  record  of  a  three  weeks'  voyage  on  a  P.  and  O.  steamer,  with  a  donkey  ride  at 
Port  Said,  and  an  exceptional  experience  on  the  camels  at  Aden. 

Three  weeks  were  spent  on  the  Island  of  Ceylon,  and  included  a  trip  to  the 
Kandian  Mountains,  the  pleasure  retreat  of  the  English  officials.  Thence  to  Bom 
bay,  and  on  to  Allahabad,  with  an  Indian  servant,  whose  original  qualities  were 
alike  striking  and  ingenious.  There  is  a  vivid  description  of  the  Hindu  Melah 
festivals  on  the  banks  of  the  Junna  River,  and  of  hundreds  of  holy  Fakirs  gathered 
there,  with  an  account  of  the  medical  missions  and  the  Christian  schools.  At 
Calcutta  she  saw  the  intense  Oriental  atmosphere  heightened  by  the  visit  of  the 
Russian  Czarovitch,  and  at  the  grand  ball,  the  high  water-mark  of  Eastern  mag 
nificence,  when  the  Rajahs  and  Indian  princes  appeared  in  the  native  costumes, 
bedecked  with  brilliant  jewels. 

In  the  descriptive  bits  of  real  life  at  Delhi,  there  is  a  characterization  of  mer 
cantile  life,  and  the  peculiar  methods  of  the  native  trading  with  foreigners.  The 
wonderful  ruins,  the  matchless  Jumna  Musjid,  the  imperial  palaces,  carved  lace- 
work  screens,  the  marble  mosques,  etc.,  all  are  portrayed  in  graphic  terms. 
From  Delhi,  an  excursion  was  made  to  the  Kootub,  — a  unique  monument  of 
fluted  sandstone  of  Arabic  design. 

Jeypore  was  a  marked  contrast  to  all  previous  sights.  Here  is  a  pink  and 
white  city.  Elephants,  caparisoned  as  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  tread  softly  in  the 
streets  ;  there  are  peculiar  street  scenes  and  customs,  and  the  atmosphere  is  that 
of  an  intensified  East.  The  traveller  took  an  elephant  ride  to  Amber  and  the 
deserted  palace  of  the  Rajputs.  The  mountain  roadways  were  lined  with  white 
mosques,  and  shrines  overgrown  with  dense  creepers,  through  which  darted  wild 
peacocks  and  chattering  monkeys. 


ffew  York:  ANSON  D,  F,  KANDOLPH  &  00,  (Incorporated), 

182  FIFTH   AVENUE. 
Sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  price. 


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